Ashwini Vaishnaw will continue to be the Railway and IT minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Cabinet besides getting new key portfolio – Information and Broadcasting.
As the railway minister, who tackled last year’s Balasore tragedy Vaishnaw is aware of his role and responsibility in this tenure as well.
Providing a safe journey to the travellers would be the first and foremost responsibility of the new railways minister besides introducing newer and better trains.
Railway safety has come under the cloud since the Odisha train tragedy in June, last year.
It was a massive tragedy after a passenger train crashed into an already parked goods train.
The collision had an impact on another Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express, which derailed its coaches.
Later an enquiry by the Ministry of Railways found out that the incident had happened due to a signalling error.
There were as many as ten major and minor railway mishaps that happened in 2023 and the recent one in Punjab when a stationary goods train was hit from behind by another at the Sirhind railway station in Fatehgarh Sahib.
Besides railway safety, which is the key, the government has several other tasks to focus on including expanding the existing network of Vande Bharat trains in the country and getting India its first bullet train.
In March 2024, just before the beginning of Lok Sabha
elections, PM Modi inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of Rs 85,000 crore railway projects, including the launch of 10 new Vande Bharat trains.
The government also plans to export Vande Bharat trains and the first export is expected within the next five years.
Vaishnaw holds an MBA degree from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and has seventeen years of experience in leadership positions in infrastructure development, says his brief Linkedin profile.
In March this year, Vaishnaw had also said that India will manufacture at least 1,000 new-generation Amrit Bharat trains that can run at a speed of 250 kilometres per hour.
It is time for Vaishnaw to walk-the-talk on his promises.
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