Country's second luxury Humsafar Express chugs off from Assam

Guwahati: Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on Sunday flagged off the country's second and northeast's first Humsafar Express between Guwahati's Kamakhya and Karnataka's Bengaluru Cantonment stations.

"Perceptible changes are taking place in the Indian Railways in terms of delivery of quality service, progress of developmental projects and redress of public grievances, which all are component of good governance," Prabhu said, flagging off the train through videoconferencing from Mumbai.

The minister said several developmental projects in the northeast -- doubling of railway lines, electrification and capacity augmentation -- have got fresh impetus due to the active monitoring and participation of the government.

"Earlier, the northeastern region used to get the benefits of development in the last, but the scene has been reversed and the region now gets all the benefits first," Prabhu said.

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Minister of State for Railways Rajen Gohain attended the simple function organised by the Northeast Frontier Railway at the Kamakhya station here for the inaugural run of Humsafar Express.

Humsafar Express is an all-AC 'affordable' luxury train for the common man and was announced in the Railway Budget 2016. The train has air-conditioned 3-tier coaches.