Howrah/Bhubaneswar, May 18 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch railway projects worth more than Rs 8,000 crore in Odisha on Thursday and flag off the state's first Vande Bharat Express that will connect Puri to West Bengal's Howrah, officials said.

He will flag off the Puri-Howrah Vande Bharat Express around 1 pm through video-conferencing. It will be the fastest train on the route, covering the 500 km distance in around 6.5 hours, a South Eastern Railway official said in Kolkata.

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Apart from that, the prime minister will lay the foundation stone for the redevelopment of Puri and Cuttack railway stations.

He will also dedicate to the nation 100 per cent electrification of the rail network in Odisha. This will reduce the operating and maintenance cost and reduce reliance on imported crude oil, an official of the East Coast Railways said in Bhubaneswar.

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He will inaugurate the doubling of the Sambalpur-Titlagarh rail line, a new broad gauge rail line between Angul and Sukinda, the third line connecting Manoharpur-Rourkela-Jharsuguda-Jamga and a new broad-gauge line between Bichhupali and Jhartarbha.

These will cater to the increased traffic demands as a result of rapid industrial development in the steel, power and mining sectors in Odisha, and will also help ease the pressure on passenger traffic in these sections, officials said.

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan will grace the programme at Puri station.

The two ministers, along with BJP leader Sambit Patra, visited the famed Jagannath temple in Puri in the morning.

A cultural programme was also organised at the Howrah station to mark the flagging off of the Vande Bharat Express, which will be West Bengal's second.

Regular run of the 22895/22896 Howrah-Puri-Howrah Vande Bharat Express will commence from May 20, officials said.

The train, which will run six days a week except Thursdays, will depart Howrah at 6.10 am and reach Puri at 12.35 pm. In the return direction, it will leave Puri at 1.50 pm and arrive at Howrah at 8.30 pm, they said.

The train, with 16 coaches, will stop at Kharagpur, Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur Keonjhar Road, Cuttack, Bhubaneswar and Khurda Road.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)