Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the inaugural session of the Rail Vikas Shivir at Surajkund near New Delhi. The Indian Railways is organizing the three-day Shivir from 18 November 2016. The aim of the Shivir is to generate numerous innovative ideas across most critical areas of the railway operations for substantial progress of this sector.

• Such brainstorming and large-scale planning involving all railway employees is taking place for the first time in the 163-year-long history of the Indian Railways.
• The Railway Ministry said the outcome of this camp would lead to rapid rejuvenation, transformation, modernisation, efficiency and productivity.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the Indian Railways should transform with the change of the century and focus on “new speeds, progress and new capacity” along with gaining financial strength.
• Mr. Modi, whose government has decided to scrap the 92-year-old practice of presenting a separate Railway Budget, also asserted that the annual ritual was never an exercise of “political agenda” for him and that he had taken the “courageous” decision of keeping himself “free from the love for political gains (from railways)”.
• The Prime Minister, who is stated to have sold tea at railway stations in his childhood, said he had special affection for the railways considering that he had spent so much of his early days at railway platforms and had seen the largest public transporter from close quarters.