Railway Problem At Fore

At last, CM writes a letter to Railway Minister

The chief minister of Maharashtra seems to have taken at last the problem of railway passengers in the state. I have written about this problem some days ago. The CM has written a letter to the new railway minister Mamata Banerjee, who like her predecessor appears to incline more towards her native state. Barely two days after getting her portfolio, she has announced a new train for West Bengal.

In the letter sent to Banerjee, the CM has pointed out that the state government has earmarked 50 percent of amount necessary to complete four tracks in the state. These include Ahmednagar-Parali, Vardha-Nanded and Vadsad-Gadchiroli. With that, the permission for new railway route between Pune-Nashik is also sought. This route is 265 km long. At present, the only train connecting these two important cities have to pass through Klayan which adds up to more than 100 Kms of distance or two hours in terms of time.

All these routes were pending for many years. Ahmednagar-Beed-Parali route is 261.25 Kms and its survey has been completed by railway ministry. If completed, this route will lessen the travel between Pune to Nanded by more than half. At present, the trains connecting these two cities have to travel half of Maharashtra. The train connecting these two cities goes through Daund, Ahmednagar, Manmad, Aurangabad, Jalna and Parbhani. This consumes about 10 hours of travel. People from Marathwada are fighting for this route for more than 50 years. It is a welcome move if the CM has taken notice of this.

Connecting the Dots

Government seems to have at last realized the need of connecting Nanded sub-division to Central Railway. Oraganisation fighting for railway problems in Marathwada have since long expressing the need of joining the sub-division, which currently falls under South Central Railway to Central Railway.

Chavan while giving the information regarding his letter to RM, publicly said that people feel various inconveniences to approach the headquarter of SC railway in Hyderabad. Since people from the region travel to Mumbai for their official work, it is obvious that they should go to Mumbai instead of Hyderabad for work related to railway. This pronunciation itself is a corroboration of public demand to attach the sub-division to CR. If it is done, it will be of great help.