Narkhed–Amravati Railway

Introduction

The Narkhed–Amravati line is a railway connecting Narkhed town in Nagpur district and Amravati city, both in the Indian state of the Maharashtra. The line is under the administrative jurisdiction of Central Railway

Contents

• Introduction
• History
• Railway station
• Other aspects
• Optional route
• Electrification
• References

History

Narkhed and Amravati towns in Maharashtra's orange belt have waited for more than 80 years to be linked by rail. The 140-km track was first sanctioned in 1928 under the British, but stayed on the backburner. The project was revived only in 1993/94 and a budget of Rs 2.84 billion approved. The then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao laid the foundation stone. But protests by the Shiv Sena, which opposed the displacement of people, stalled the project for many more years. In September 2008, when President Pratibha Patil inaugurated the new Amravati model railway station, it seemed as if the project would be completed soon. Far from it. In November 2009, the Railway Ministry announced the link would be inaugurated in December 2010. But in January 2011, the deadline was pushed to October. Initially trains on this route will have to run on diesel locomotives as the link is yet to be electrified. Wonder how long that will take

Railway station

This Railway route has thirteen railway station excluding Narkhed, New Amravati and Badnera. Those are Narkhed, Mowad, Pusla, Warud, Benoda, Pala, Hiwarkhed, Morshi, Astegoan, Kolvihir, Chandur Bazar, Sirla, Walgaon, New Amravati and Badnera.

Other aspects

The area from which this railway route is passing is agricultural rich belt, famous for orange and cotton growing. The route directly connects many places of tourist interest, including:

Hanuman Temple of Belona.

Nal-Damyanti Sagar Dam Morshi

Muktagiri Jain Temple

Chikhaldara Hill Station

Melghat Tiger Reserve

Amba Devi Temple Amravati

Gurukunj Mozari

Optional route

This route is become very important because it provided the connectivity between two important railway route in India. The New Delhi–Chennai Grand trunk route and Howrah–Nagpur–Mumbai line both have heavy passenger as well as goods train traffic. In the case of the Narkhed–Amravati line, there is the option of diverting the train on this route to continue the rail traffic. Already two time this kind of situation faced by railway when the train had diverted on the route which shown the important of the route.

Due to continuous and heavy rains on 19 July 2013, the ballast under the railway track and bank including minor bridge had been washed out completely between Sindi and Tuljapur station on Nagpur – Wardha section.

12 bogies of the goods train derailed between Sonkhamb and Kohli railway stations on Narkhed–Nagpur section on 30 January 2014

Hence we can say that this route provide optional route to both the heavy traffic route.

Electrification

The electrification has already started and will complete soon.

9. narkher kachiguda intercity express daily 4:30 5:00 5:35 6:30 7:15