RTI Reveals Rs 3.37 Crore Spent on 3-Minute PM Modi Vande Bharat Inauguration

New Delhi — Three minutes. Just three minutes. That is the length of the video showing Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagging off four Vande Bharat trains in Varanasi. Yet, according to an RTI reply accessed through activist Ajay Vasudev Bose, those three minutes came at a staggering cost of more than Rs 3.37 crore to the public exchequer.

The revelation, first reported by The Wire, has triggered sharp questions about transparency, accountability, and the ballooning cost of official events funded by taxpayer money.

On or around November 8, Prime Minister Modi visited his parliamentary constituency, Varanasi, to flag off four Vande Bharat Express trains. The event, streamed and uploaded on official platforms, shows the Prime Minister inaugurating trains in person and via video conferencing. To the casual viewer, it was just another inauguration in a long list. But the RTI reply from the North Eastern Railway’s Varanasi Division now shows that the brief event cost Rs 3,37,93,000.

“This was not party expenditure. This was government money,” RTI activist Ajay Vasudev Bose said. “Railways’ money is public money. People have a right to know how such large amounts are being spent for events that last a few minutes.”

According to the RTI response, the amount was incurred as part of official arrangements for the Prime Minister’s visit. However, the breakdown of expenses has not been provided. The railway division cited costs such as decoration, arrangements, and related logistics, but did not disclose whether private agencies were hired, how much was spent on security, media management, or event production, or which contractors benefited.

The lack of details has only fuelled further questions.

“What exactly costs Rs 3.37 crore in a three-minute inauguration?” asked Bose. “Was an event management company hired? Was media promotion outsourced? These answers were not given.”

What adds to the controversy is the sharp rise in costs over the years. When the very first Vande Bharat Express, running from Delhi to Varanasi, was flagged off by Prime Minister Modi on February 15, 2019, the expenditure was Rs 52 lakh. Six years later, the cost has increased more than sixfold.

“That is a 6.5 times jump,” Bose noted. “And this is just one event.”

The RTI trail also points to a pattern. In a similar disclosure dated April 8, 2023, Southern Railway informed that Rs 1.14 crore was spent on the inauguration of the Chennai–Coimbatore Vande Bharat Express. Notably, nearly Rs 1 crore from that amount was paid to a private event management company, Evoke, for media and event-related services.

This raises an obvious question: was a similar agency involved in the Rs 3.37 crore Varanasi inauguration as well?

“As citizens, we are not told who gets these contracts or how decisions are made,” said a senior railway official, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Only total expenditure figures are disclosed, not itemised accounts.”

Critics argue that while infrastructure development and inaugurations are part of governance, the optics-driven scale of such events needs scrutiny—especially when the cost is borne by public sector institutions.

Every year, Prime Minister Modi flags off multiple Vande Bharat trains across India. With dozens more planned, concerns are mounting over how much public money will continue to be spent on similar ceremonies.

“The issue is not the Prime Minister inaugurating projects,” Bose stressed. “The issue is unchecked spending, lack of transparency, and the absence of detailed public disclosure.”