New Delhi, Aug 6 (IANS): The Congress on Sunday took a dig at the BJP-led Central government after Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation for the redevelopment of 508 railway stations, saying that the PM should first take some initiatives to make train journey "safe and reliable".

Accusing the Centre of doing propaganda, Congress' Rajya Sabha MP Randeep Singh Surjewala said in a tweet, "Instead of repeatedly showing 'green flag' in the event just to paint a 'false image', Modi ji do something to make the journey of railway safe and reliable."

He added, "Indian Railways has been the lifeline of the country. But, the Modi government has made railway journey extremely risky in the last nine years.

"As per the information given to the Parliament by Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw in December last year, a total of 3.2 lakh posts are vacant in the railways."

Referring to the recent Balasore train tragedy that claimed nearly 300 lives, the Congress MP said, "The wounds of the horrific train accident in Odisha's Balasore are not even healed yet. The whole country is seeing the brunt of continuous neglect of the needs of maintenance of railway tracks and signal systems."

Earlier on Sunday, Prime Minister Modi virtually laid the foundation for the redevelopment of 508 'Amrit Bharat Stations' spread across several states at an estimated cost of around Rs 25,000 crore.