<p class="p1">Prime Minister Narendra Modi today dedicated a railway bridge on the river Kosi, called Kosi Rail Mahasetu, to the nation and inaugurated new rail lines and electrification projects in Bihar through a video conference.</p>
<p class="p1">“Projects worth about Rs 3,000 crore like the inauguration of Kosi Mahasetu and Kiul Bridge, electrification projects, promotion of Make in India in Railways, and dozens of new job-creating projects are launched. These projects will not only strengthen Bihar’s rail network but also strengthen West-Bengal and eastern India’s rail connectivity,” said Modi.</p>
<p class="p1">Congratulating the people of Bihar for the new and modern facilities which would benefit the railway passengers of eastern India including Bihar, he said “Many parts of Bihar are cut off from each other due to many rivers crisscrossing the state and people have to perform long journeys due to this. Four years ago, the construction of two Mahasetus was started in Patna and in Munger, to solve this problem. Now due to the commissioning of these two rail bridges, the travel between North and South Bihar has eased and this has initiated a new momentum for development especially in North Bihar.”</p>
<p class="p1">Lauding the railway workers’ effort, he said, “The Supaul-Asanpur-Kupha rail route is dedicated to the nation due to the hard work of the migrant laborers who were also involved in the construction of the bridge.”</p>
<p class="p1">The new rail route on the Kiul river with the electronic interlocking facility trains will be able to run at the speed of 125 kilometers per hour. The electronic interlocking will ease the movement of trains on the mainline from Howrah-Delhi and will provide relief to unnecessary delays and travel would be safer.</p>
<p class="p1">The Prime Minister said almost 90 per cent of the rail network in Bihar has been electrified, he added, “In Bihar over the period of last six years, more than 3,000 kilometers of railways have been electrified. Only about 325 km of new rail lines were commissioned in Bihar in the five years before 2014 whereas about 700 km of new rail lines were commissioned in Bihar in the five years after 2014 which is almost double the distance constructed earlier.”</p>
<p class="p1">The Prime Minister added with the introduction of the Hajipur-Ghoswar-Vaishali rail line, Delhi and Patna will be connected by direct rail service.</p>
<p class="p1">“This service will give a lot of boost to tourism in Vaishali and new jobs will be created. Work on dedicated freight corridors is going at a faster pace and about 250 km length of the corridor would fall in Bihar. After this completion of this project, the problem of delay in passenger trains will be reduced and the delay in the movement of goods will also be greatly reduced,” he further added.</p>.