Central Railway zone

Central Railways
मध्य रेल्वे

8-Central Railway

Dates of operation 1951–Present
Predecessor Great Indian Peninsula Railway, Scindia State Railway, Dholpur Railway & others
Track gauge Mixed
Electrification YES
Headquarters Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Mumbai

The Central Railway is one of the largest of the 16 zones of Indian Railways.[1] Its headquarters is in Mumbai at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus. It includes the first passenger railway line in India, which opened from Mumbai to Thane on 16 April 1853.

The central railway covers a large part of the state of Maharashtra and small part of Southern Madhya Pradesh and North-Eastern Karnataka.

The railway zone was formed on 5 November 1951 by grouping several government-owned railways, including the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, the Scindia State Railway of the former princely state of Gwalior, Nizam State Railway, Wardha Coal State Railway and the Dholpur Railways.[2][3]

The Central Railway zone formerly included large parts of Madhya Pradesh and part of southern Uttar Pradesh, which made it the largest railway zone in India in terms of area, track mileage and staff. These areas became the new West Central Railway zone in April 2003.

The Central Railway(erstwhile GIPR) General Manager's official residence 'Glen Ogle'-a Grade II B heritage bungalow, is located on Bhausaheb Hire Marg(Mt. Plesant road) adjacent to the Maharashtra Chief minister's official residence 'Varsha' in Malabar hill in Mumbai.

Major Routes of Central Railway

Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Mumbai One of the busiest Railway Stations in India. It is also a World Heritage Site

The B.B. & C.I. Railway Head Offices

The B.B. & C.I. Railway Head Offices, 1905

It was partially destroyed by fire the night the Prince of Wales left Bombay, Nov. 1906.

Connections

Central railway zone connects to other Zones of Indian railways as at

Neral Matheran Line

Constructed in 1907, the narrow gauge Matheran line connects Neral on the Mumbai-Pune main line with the hill station of Matheran in the Western Ghats, east of Mumbai. Neral is linked to Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus by frequent suburban electric trains. Steam engines have now been replaced by diesel locomotives but it is still a pleasurable journey. The route is noted for its sharp curves.

Divisions of Central Railway

It is organized into five divisions: Mumbai CST, Bhusawal, Nagpur, Solapur and Pune. The details of the network divisionwise are as follows[4]

Central Railway Headquarters.
Central Railway Headquarters at CST.

Mumbai Division

Bhusawal Division

Nagpur Division

Nagpur Railway Station.
Nagpur Railway Station at Nagpur.

Solapur Division

Daund Sub Div.

Pune Division

Main article: Pune Railway Division

[5]

The number of stations category-wise under these five railway divisions under the Cental Railway Zones are as follows (as of 2008) : A-1 : 7, A : 20, B : 10, C : 80, D : 45, E : 221, F : 93, Total : 476[8]

Notable Trains

Ongoing Projects

New line

ahmadnagar beed parli bg work started . expected to run railway in 2019. this route as nagar kada -ashti-amalner- raimoha-beed-wadwani- parli.

Doubling

Tripling

Conversion

Proposed New Line Which can improve rail network in Maharashtra

Utilization of Routes

Highest Utilized Main lines

Lowest Utilized Main lines

Delhi-Vasai-Miraj-Bangalore route could reduce the travel time between Bangalore and Delhi and provide an alternate route. Delhi-Manmad-Solapur-Bangalore route could reduce the travel time between Bangalore and Delhi and provide an alternate route. Delhi Bangalore Rajdhani express could be started on one of the above routes. Trivandrum-Madgaon-Miraj-Nanded-Majri-Nagpur-Howrah trains can also be introduced. Hydrabad-Adilabad-Majri jn -Nagpur introduced.

Reason for lower utilization

No new daily express train has been introduced on the Pune-Miraj-Hubli-Bangalore, Pune-Miraj-Londa-Madgaon or Pune-Miraj-Hubli-Chennai route in the last 15 years. Chalukya express was introduced in 1995 via Pune-Miraj-Hubli-Bangalore section which runs five days a week. Apart from Chalukya express, only a handful of non-weekly trains like Delhi-Bangalore Karnataka Sampark Kranti(bi-weekly), Suvarnajayanti(Weekly), Pune-Ernakulam(weekly) and Ajmer/Jodhpur-Bangalore bi-weekly express have been introduced in the last 15 years.

Pune-Miraj-Hubli section was earlier with Secunderabad(AP) based South Central Railway (SCR). SCR laid more emphasis on starting new trains in Andhra Pradesh state only. As a result, no development took place on Pune-Miraj-Hubli section. Finally, Pune-Miraj section was handed over to Pune division of Central Railway(CR) and Miraj-Hubli section was handed over to the newly created South Western Railway (SWR)Hubli Division. Pune-Miraj-Hubli section has now been divided into two parts one went to CR and other went to SWR.

CR Pune Division has introduced more trains towards North of Pune and SWR Hubli Division has introduced more trains towards South of Hubli. As a result, the Pune-Miraj-Hubli stretch has been left with very few trains. No new daily express trains have been introduced on Pune-Miraj-Hubli stretch after bifurcation into CR and SWR. This has resulted in under-utilization of Pune-Miraj section.

Ways to increase utilization

There is a heavy passenger traffic on Mumbai-Bangalore, Mumbai-Chennai, Mumbai-Coimbatore, Mumbai-Tirupati routes. Lot of private buses ply on these routes as all trains on these routes are always full. Starting new trains to Bangalore & Chennai via Pune Miraj route which is under-utilized could help reduce the waiting list on many long distance trains.

Doubling of tracks and electrification of Pune to Wadi will ensure that more trains can be run between Mumbai and Chennai/Hyderabad. Pune Chamber of Commerce has demanded Doubling & Electrification of Pune-Miraj-Bangalore rail line which will speed up the travel time between Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore.

This is the proposed trains which can utilized Pune-Hubli & Solapur –Miraj line. 1. Solapur-Miraj-Londa-Madgaon-Mangalore – Weekly Express 2. Solapur-Miraj-Pune- - Daily Superfast 3. Hubli-Miraj-Pune- - Daily Superfast 4. Howrah-Nagpur-Majri-Nanded-Latur-Miraj-Vasco- Weekly Express 5. Pune-Miraj-Guntakal-Chennai- Weekly Express 6. Pune-Miraj-Secunderabad- Visakhapatnam-Weekly Express 7. Yesvantpur-Hubli-Jammutawi- Weekly Express 8. Yesvantpur-Hubli-Miraj-Jaipur- Weekly Express 9. Yesvantpur-Hubli-Miraj-Lucknow- Weekly Express 10. Yesvantpur-Hubli-Miraj- Varanasi- Weekly Express 11. Mysore-Hubli-Miraj-Ahmedabad- Weekly Express 12. Pune-Miraj-Hubli- Mangalore -Kanyakumari- Weekly Express'

The new railway line to be laid Ratnagiri-Sangli-Miraj-Bijapur-Wadi railway line must be laid to connect Konkan rail with South Maharashtra, North Karnataka & Andhra Pradesh.

This route will pass from Ratnagiri to Shirala, Islampur & Sangli. From Sangli, Miraj to Bijapur & Wadi.

Ratnagiri-Sangli (140 km) Sangli-Miraj Jn. (existing line 8 km) Miraj-Bijapur-Wadi Jn. (252 km) Ratnagiri-Wadi Jn. Total Distance 400 km.

This will help industries which are coming up in a major MIDC Industrial Estate at Shirala in Sangli district. Islampur MIDC industrial estate will also directly benefit from this railway project.

Railways will get very good income from Freight (Goods). Two major industrial estates Shirala & Islampur lie directly on this line. Apart from these, 8-10 other industrial estates in Sangli district will benefit from this railway line.

This will provide following important links

Mumbai-Ratnagiri-Miraj-Bijapur-Wadi-Chennai Pune-Miraj-Bijapur-Wadi-Chennai Bhubaneshwar-Hyderabad-Wadi-Bijapur-Miraj-Madgaon Visakhapatnam-Wadi-Miraj-Mumbai Visakhapatnam-Wadi-Miraj-Madgaon This new rail route will connect many more cities & towns. It will help economic development of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Goa & Andhra Pradesh states & indirectly benefit the whole of India.

Railways can introduce high speed trains on following route

Mumbai-Panvel-Ratnagiri-Sangli-Bangalore. Mumbai-Ratnagiri-Sangli-Bijapur-Wadi-Chennai. Ratnagiri-Sangli-Bijapur-Wadi link will be a major break through with multiple advantages:

Ratnagiri-Sangli railway line via Shirala will be the shortest link between Konkan railway & Central railway. Traffic on lot of existing railway lines will be eased. Economic Development of Konkan, South Maharashtra & North Karnataka. Freight transport between Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka & Andhra Pradesh will be more faster. Economic Development of many towns & cities along this route will speed up. Konkan railway will be linked directly to Bhubaneshwar, Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad, Bangalore & Chennai. Mumbai-Bangalore & Mumbai-Chennai travel will be faster Pune, Satara, Sangli will be directly connected to Ratnagiri, Goa & Kerala via Konkan rail. Ratnagiri port will be directly connected with rest of India by the shortest route. Load on Mumbai port will be drastically reduced. It will result in substantial savings for Indian manufacturing companies who are exporting & importing goods. Shirala, Islampur & Ashta towns will be connected to the rest of India by railway for the first time.

Re-Organization of Central Railway Zones

The load on Mumbai Division is every growing with the sub-urban local traffic increasing every day. Now Thane-Belapur trans harbour line has also been added to Mumbai division. It is becoming difficult to manage the Mumbai Division day by day. Under these circumstances, it is necessary to re-organize the Central railway by transferring the busy Karjat-Lonavala-Pune section to Pune division and carving a new Division at Miraj junction which now has 4 5 ft 6 in (1,676 mm) broad gauge routes connecting it with a heavy passenger and freight traffic. The re-organization would result in following changes to Pune Division:

Pune Division (Re-organized)

Miraj Division (Creation of Miraj division to reduce load on Mumbai & Pune divisions)

Creation of Miraj division would reduce the load on the current Mumbai & Pune divisions. Also submit the Lonavla-pune in Mumbai division. Proposal for creation of new Miraj Division has been handed over to Mr. SK Sood, GM.

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://www.indianrailways.gov.in/railwayboard/view_section.jsp?lang=0&id=0,1,304,366,533,1007,1012
  2. ↑ Rao, M.A. (1988). Indian Railways, New Delhi: National Book Trust, p.42
  3. ↑ Welcome to Central Railways – Construction > Projects
  4. ↑ cnt-rly
  5. ↑ Welcome to Central Railways – Construction > Projects
  6. ↑ Work on Nashik-Pune rail route begins
  7. ↑ Maharashtra Government to share cost for Pune-Nashik, Karad-Chiplun rail links
  8. ↑ "CATEGORISATION OF STATIONS" (PDF). Retrieved 15 January 2016.

External links

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