Cabinet approves doubling of Daund-Manmad and Barabanki-Akbarpur Railway Line

September 13, 2017: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved the doubling of Daund-Manmad railway line of 247.5 km to ease movement of passengers and goods across Pune, Ahmednagar and Nashik in Maharashtra. The estimated cost of the project will be Rs 2,081.27 crore and expected completion cost of Rs 2330.51 crore.  The project is likely to be completed in next five years by 2021-22. The route will also ease the congestion in Mumbai by diverting the trains to this route.

“The line capacity utilization of Daund-Manmad section during the year 2014-15 was 156 percent with maintenance block. The doubling of Bhigwan-Mohol, Hotgi-Gulbarga on Mumbai-Chennai main route is in progress and once completed, there will be increase in traffic over the Daund-Manmad section. Thus, an existing single line will not be in a position to deal with the increased traffic and make this section a bottleneck, as capacity utilization has already reached saturation. Therefore, doubling between Daund-Manmad section is necessary,” the Ministry of Railways said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the cabinet also approved the 161 km long Barabanki-Akbarpur doubling project at a completion cost of Rs 1,310.23 crore and is likely to be completed by 2021-22. The project will cover the districts of Barabanki and Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh and will benefit the entire route from Lucknow to Varanasi via Faizabad.

At present, delay of trains in Barabanki to Varanasi is high and express trains are taking up to 7-15 hours for covering a distance of just 323 kms. Present capacity utilization from Barabanki to Faizabad is 146.5 percent and from Faizabad to Akbarpur it is 152.6 percent. The doubling project will ensure higher speeds, reduce train delays, enhance safety by allowing more time for block maintenance and provide additional capacity for future increase in traffic.

Doubling is likely to decongest the entire route from Lucknow to Varanasi and also lead to economic prosperity and overall development of the region.