New track to connect Nashik with Pune

In what constitutes as good news for Nashik residents, the city will soon be connected to Pune and the Manmad Indore railway, as announced in this year's railway budget.

The best news, of course, is the 265-km track connecting Nashik with Pune. The project, worth Rs2,425 crore, is also likely to be supported by the state government. The demand for the Nashik-Pune railway route has been long pending. At present, commuters between the two large cities depend largely on the road route, which has become heavily congested due to increasing traffic.

After a persistent demand, Rs1.03 crore was sanctioned in the last budget for the survey of the Nashik-Pune rail route. The survey was recently conducted by the Central Railways. The 265-km track was finalised in spite of demands for resurveys. The rail route between Nashik and Pune starts from Nashik road and will pass through Sinnar, Ahmednagar and Junnar before reaching Pune.

The other major achievement for the region has been the proposed Manmad Indore railway, which, again, was a long-pending demand of the people from the region, particularly from Malegaon. A new, Rs9,968-crore track has been proposed on this route, which will pass through Malegaon, Dhule and Nardana to reach Indore and will shorten the time for travel from 14 hours to about six hours.

"We hope that this route will open the doors for the much-needed development of Malegaon," said Atiq Sheikh, a social activist from Malegaon.

It was also announced in the budget that Nashik would be incorporated in the Astha circuit, meant for trains for places where religious pilgrimages take place.