The
Indian Ministry of Railways on Tuesday renamed one of its oldest train, Howrah
Kalka Mail, as the ‘Netaji Express’ to commemorate 125th birth
anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.

“Indian
Railways is happy to announce the naming of 12311/12312 Howrah-Kalka Express as
‘Netaji Express’. Netaji’s prakram had put India on the express route of
freedom and development,” the ministry’s official Twitter handle wrote.

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal also took to twitter to celebrate the valour of Netaji by making the announcement.

“Netaji’s prakram had put India on the express route of freedom and development. I am thrilled to celebrate his anniversary with the introduction of “Netaji Express” he wrote.

Started
in 1866, Howarh Kalka Mail is India’s one of the oldest commercial passenger train
services and said to have carried Netaji Bose himself from Gomoh in Bihar after
he escaped from his house in Kolkata and fled to Berlin in 1941.

The train even called the fancy of Oscar winning film director and writer Satyajit Ray who wrote a novel named ‘Incident on the Kalka Mail’ and later made a film, Bakso Rahashya, based on the very novel.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Centre also announced that January 23, the birth anniversary of freedom fighter Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, will be observed as ‘Parakram Diwas’ every year.

In fact, an 85-member panel was constituted, earlier this month, to decide on activities for a year-long commemoration of Netaji’s birth anniversary, starting from January 23. The panel is headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.