Ahmednagar : Chief Minister Minister Eknath Shinde will inaugurate the Ashti-Ahmednagar new line on Friday. After a successful trial run conducted around 10 months ago, the Central Railway started the diesel electric multiple units (DEMU) train service on the Ashti-Ahmednagar route during the day.
The DEMU train left Ahmednagar at 7.45 am and will arrive at Ashti at 10.30 am where the Chief Minister will formally launch the service. In the return journey, the train will depart from Ashti at 11 am and is scheduled to reach Ahmednagar at 1.55 pm. This train will run daily except on Sunday.
New Ashti-Ahmednagar broad gauge is around 66 km long and is a part of the 261 km Ahmednagar-Beed-Parli Vaijnath new broad gauge line project which is on 50-50 cost sharing between the Government of India and State Government of Maharashtra.
According to Railways, this service will ensure better connectivity to residents of the Ashti-Ahmednagar belt and nearby areas and promote local trade and industries, thus boosting the socio-economic growth of the (Marathwada) region. This DEMU train will halt at Kada, New Dhanora, Solapurwadi, New Loni and Narayandoho.
The Ahmednagar- Beed- Parli Vaijyanath broad-gauge railway line and the conversion of the Nagpur- Nagbhid narrow-gauge rail line into a broad-gauge one, Rs 350 crore and Rs 107.22 crore respectively will be earmarked as the state government's share of the project.
The department of land records will get Rs 15 crore for purchasing continuous operating reference stations (CORS) rovers and electronic total station (ETS) machines to conduct faster and more modern land surveys and generate accurate land records.
As far as the political background of the Parli-Beed-Ahmednagar route is concerned, in the year 1995, the Nagar-Beed-Parli railway line was approved. However, the work of this route was stopped for many years due to a lack of political will.
At that time, the cost of this project exceeded around 4000 crores. Nagar Ashti Marg has also been completed. But the train is not running. Besides the CM, Minister of State for Railways Raosaheb Danve and other political dignitaries would be present during the inauguration. (with Agency inputs)
