Central Railway is going for a study to find a new route that would take off from Narkhed in Eastern part of Vidarbha and connect the same with Washim in Western Vidarbha. A feasibility study has been ordered in the current year's budget by the Railways. The idea is to find a new and shorter route for routing trains to Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar from Eastern Vidarbha region, feel the analysts. The new rail link is expected to be 232 km and a sum of Rs 0.35 crore is sanctioned for the same by Headquarters.

 

Right now ex-Nagpur to reach Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar one has to traverse the Howrah-Mumbai route till Akola and from there take of the branch route via Washim to Aurangabad. To avoid this circuitous route, a new line is sought to be explored so that faster rail service can be introduced in the future. So a route starting from Narkhed would proceed till Warud, and from there the link would move to Pulgaon. Already a plan is afoot to lay a new rail link from Pulgaon to Warud to offer an alternate route to bypass the heavily congested Grand Trunk and Howrah-Mumbai routes. For the same, a traffic study has been commissioned to study the possibility of laying 60 km of new railway line. Rail watchers said that most probably the thinking is that since a rail route from Warud to Pulgaon is being explored, then the next logical step is to extend this link upto Washim.

 

Currently, to reach Washim, one has to depend on Badnera-Akola route, again this link is being utilised over 100 per cent. The existing route is already overexploited, and with a view to decongest and offer faster travel, the new route is being planned. So on the map from Pulgaon the new route could possibly align with the Nagpur-Mumbai old highway. This way the route could possibly move along to Karanja (Lad) and from there to Washim. This way the Badnera to Akola line can be by-passed. Contd on page 2