Ministry of Railways gives green signal for Pune – Nashik Semi High Speed Double Railway Line

This will be the First Semi High Speed Railway corridor on a Broad Gauge line in the World. So far, all the High-Speed trains are running on Standard Gauge, MRIDC will be the First Corporation to design the Railway Line with Semi High-Speed train on a Broad-Gauge line with speed up to 250 Km/hr.

Mumbai: The significant milestone has been achieved by MRIDC, as the much-awaited Pune-Nashik Railway Line project has received a green nod from Railway Ministry vide letter.
dt 02.06.2020. The project is finally taking shape, as earlier, MRIDC had received approval vide letter dt.10.02.2020 from Central Railway for implementing Greenfield Semi- High Speed- Broad Gauge Double line.

MRDIC had already submitted the Detailed Project Report on Pune Nashik Greenfield Semi High Speed Double Line to Government of Maharashtra and is awaiting approval.

This Semi-High-Speed Double line will provide direct connectivity between Pune and Nashik. The journey between the two cities will be completed in less than 2 hrs. having expertise in the field of Railway Engineering, MRIDC has planned and designed to run the Pune – Nashik Broad Gauge Railway line with commercial speed of 200Km/hr with future increment up to 250 Km/hr.

Rajesh Kumar Jaiswal, Managing Director, MahaRail who has already authored a book on High Speed Trains and having good expertise on High Speed Trains has informed that, “This project will not only attract goods trains but also the high speed train will attract more passengers to the route as the travel time will reduce less than 2 hrs. The travel time from Pune to Nashik will be completed in 1 hour and 45 mins. MRIDC has also planned to develop Private Freight Terminal (PFT), Dry Port, Multimodal and Commercial Hub, Warehouses and Sidings at suggested locations by the local industries.”

As this Pune-Nashik belt has huge industries, this project will open a new revenue for industries by fast track movements of cargo by Railways as important MIDC areas such as Chakan, Sinnar & Satpur will be directly connected by this Railway line. There will be a provision for EMU shuttle also to run on this corridor, as this will also help daily passengers to travel to the cosmopolitan cities from the suburbs.

This Railway line will pass through three districts of Maharashtra i.e. Pune, Ahmednagar and Nashik providing seamless connectivity to industrial zones of Pune and Nashik such as Alandi, Chakan, Khed, Manchar, Narayangaon, Sinnar and Satpur. Apart from these MIDC areas, the proposed line will cater to another important Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Khed, Narayangaon and Manchar. This project will also provide benefit to Tourism and Pilgrimage places in Pune – Nashik corridor.

The entire cost of the project has been pegged at Rs 16,039 Crore (including taxes); MRIDC shall invite equity partners to participate in the project. Once, the approvals are granted from Government of Maharashtra the project is estimated to be completed in 1200 days from the date of financial closure.

Significant Features of this project:

This High-Speed Train will start from new proposed Pune Railway station and it will be going to Hadapsar on elevated deck, from Hadapsar to Nashik the train will run on the ground and will go up to Nashik Road Railway station.

The proposed new Pune Railway station for the Semi High Speed Train will have a commercial complex and Multimodal Hub.

The Semi High Speed Trains will initially have 6 coaches designed to run at speed of 200 Km/Hr on the Broad-Gauge line. The number of coaches will increase to 12 and then to 16.

The proposed alignment is designed such that there will be no compromising on speed.

Socio – Economic Potential of the proposed alignment

The proposed alignment will pass through the talukas of Pune, Haveli, Khed, Ambegaon and Junnar tehsils of Pune district, Sangamner tehsil of Ahmednagar district and Sinnar and Nasik tehsils of Nasik district. The project will have the influence in the buffer zone of 25 KM radius having 8 Numbers of MIDC areas, 2 Major Industrial areas, 2 major industrial estate operated by cooperative groups i.e. 12 industrial estates with area of 10,000 + hectares.

This rail line will certainly augment the revenues from the multi-fold industries like automobile hub, machineries, electronics, pharmaceuticals, sugar mills and other agricultural activities around the project influential regions. The passengers of varied travel purposes such as tourism, educations, agricultural and as well as business and daily shuttles will have the ample facilities to connect with rest of the country.

All the intercity movements and transportation for both passengers and freight will flourish because of faster movement on rail line between Pune and Nashik. This rail line will help to connect South and North due to this shorter and faster route between the cities.

Apart from these quantified benefits, there would be substantial benefits in the form of development of areas adjoining the project line. Further, this line would improve the competitiveness of industries currently operating in the PIA as the Rail line will result to reduce the logistic cost and would be an additional accrued benefit.

Economic benefit

The project is envisaged to yield tangible as well as non-tangible savings due to a reduction in the number of vehicles being used for transportation as well as certain socio-economic benefits such as employment generation, reduction in number of accidents and reduction in Pollution due vehicular traffic.

About MahaRail

Maharashtra Rail Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (MRIDC or MAHARAIL) a Joint Venture of “Government of Maharashtra” and “Ministry of Railways” on 50:50 basis with an objective to provide a boost to the Rail Infrastructure Projects in the state of Maharashtra by providing critical connectivity and capacity enhancement. MRIDC aim is also to identify the traffic potential of different regions of the state including rail connectivity to the neighbouring states and find out economically viable projects and implement them with fast track construction and commissioning.