111 km of high speed railway track to pass from district

Aurangabad, Aug 18:

The Mumbai-Nagpur High Speed Railway (MNHSR) will make it possible to reach Mumbai in just two hours. Discussions were held on Wednesday at Rukmini hall, MGM among the railway officials, district administration, farmers and citizens regarding the process of land acquisition and the environmental and social impact of the project. A 111 km high speed railway track will be constructed parallel to the Samruddhi Expressway in the district. The National High Speed Railway Corporation Limited and a Detailed Project Report (DPR) will be undertaken soon. The total project cost, construction period and total traffic will be clarified after DPR.

It is proposed to construct high speed railway stations at 14 places including Ajni, Khapri, Wardha, Pulgaon, Karanja Lad, Malegaon-Jahangir, Mehkar, Jalna, Aurangabad, Shirdi, Nashik, Ghoti-Budruk, Shahpur and Thane. It will be possible to travel from Mumbai to Nagpur in three and half hours. It is predicted that the project will boost township development, create employment, reduce cost of road maintenance in urban areas, improve air quality and reduce traffic in the city. It is claimed that existing transport facilities will be streamlined. The officials discussed the environmental and social impact of the project. Railway joint manager Anil Sharma, additional collector Dr Anant Gavhane, deputy collector S More, Prajakta Kulkarni, Pradip Barge of the survey institute, Vishal Shrivastav and Rahul Ranjan and more than 100 farmers and citizens were present.

Land to be acquired in Aurangabad district

The 111 km train will pass from 49 villages in 3 tehsils in Aurangabad district. Over 167.96 hectares of land will be required from the district that includes 73.73 hectares of private land and 94.22 hectares of government land. Around 201 government plots and 410 private plots will have to be acquired. In all, 61.94 hectares of land from 23 villages in Aurangabad tehsil, 37.10 hectares land from 11 villages in Gangapur tehsil and 67.90 hectares land from 15 villages in Vaijapur tehsil will be acquired. The land acquisition will take place as per the government policy of 2013.

Details of the high-speed railway project

Total length: 749 km

Number of stations: 14

Districts to be connected: 10

Land acquisition : 1245.61 hectares

Speed of train: 330 to 350 km

Passenger transport capacity: 750

Total number of tunnels: 3 (15, 25 and 23 km)

17.5 m wide pass near Samruddhi expressway