New Delhi: The Congress on Thursday dubbed the Ahmedabad-Mumbai high-speed express an "election bullet train" and said its launch was timed keeping in mind the upcoming Gujarat Assembly polls. It said the foundation stone laying followed a set pattern of announcing packages and big-ticket projects by the Modi government ahead of every state election.
It accused the Modi government of "completely abdicating its responsibility" towards safety of passengers, while focussing on this one project.
Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge also charged Prime Minister Narendra Modi with delaying the project, conceived by the erstwhile UPA government, for three-and-a- half years, thus making it "economically unviable". Congress spokesperson RPN Singh alleged that the BJP government was ignoring railway safety, even though 259 passengers have been killed and 973 injured in 29 major railway accidents since the Modi dispensation assumed office.