President Ram Nath Kovind paid a visit to his birthplace in Uttar Pradesh. There he met up with his old friends from school days and early days of his social career. It will be the first time in 15 years that a president travelled by train.
According to a tweet by Rashtrapati Bhawan“President Kovind boarded a special presidential train from Safdarjung railway station to Kanpur. The train made two stop-overs, at Jhinjhak and Rura of Kanpur Dehat, and reached Kanpur Central in the evening.”
The train’s loco pilot, Sanjay Kumar Singh, described it as a “moment of pride” and expressed the hope that such a trip by Kovind will encourage more people to travel by train, while the train’s co-pilot, Anil Kumar Dixit, said it was the “happiest” of all the trains he had operated.
“His excellency’s journey from Delhi to his hometown was made possible by a special train service. This decision was a huge morale booster for the Railwaymen who have wholeheartedly served during the pandemic days.
This would also serve to stimulate and improve people’s confidence in using trains to go to different regions of the country for business, tourism, and other objectives “a statement said.
In photographs tweeted by the Rashtrapati Bhavan of the president boarding the train, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal can also be seen.
This will be Kovind’s first trip back to his birthplace since becoming president.
The last time a president took a train was in 2006 when A P J Abdul Kalam took a special train from Delhi to Dehradun to attend the Indian Military Academy (IMA) cadets’ passing-out parade.
According to the Rashtrapati Bhavan, records suggest that the country’s first president, Rajendra Prasad, frequently travelled by rail.
On June 28, Prez Ram Nath Kovind would board a train from Kanpur Central Railway Station to travel to Lucknow, the capital in UP.
