Third railway line between Surat and Udhna gets operational

Surat: The third railway line between Surat and Udhna has become operational from today.

The non-interlocking work was going on from 26th August after the completion of the installation of the third railway line between Surat and Udhan railway stations. The non-interlocking work and CRS inspection ends today on August 28. The trains have started operating from today on the third railway line.

There is a high traffic of passenger mail express and freight trains between Surat and Mumbai. The traffic increased even more after the start of the second railway line between Surat and Jalgaon. The trains of Surat-MUmbai and Surat-Jalgaon routes were affected as there were only two lines between Surat and Udhna. The third railway line will resolve these issues.

Before the 56-hour block of final work that started on August 26th, Sumit Thakur, CPRO had stated that, “Once the third line project is finalized, there will be an upsurge in the volume of traffic along the Surat-Udhna segment of the Western Railway. Subsequent to the completion of the third line construction, a number of new trains are anticipated to be introduced on this route”

Moreover, the Western Railway is likely to start another Vande Bharat train connecting Ahmedabad to Mumbai, it is learnt. It is also learnt, that the trains from Jangaon Bhusawal to Hawda, Chennai and Puri will run on the third railway line. The trains arriving from Bhusawal to Surat will also run on the third railway line. It will decrease the traffic on Mumbai-Ahmedabad-Delhi main line.

The works of a 5 km Surat – Udhna third railway line started only last year after removing 2 km long slums and illegal encroachments near the Millenium market. The proposal to lay the third line was approved in the year 2018 by the Railway ministry but due to encroachments, it started late. At present both tracks of the main line have too much load of trains of Ahmedabad – Mumbai and Delhi – Mumbai route. After the laying of the third line, all trains of the Tapti line are to be shifted to the third line, relieving the load on the main line which has a load of around 200 trains every day. Tapti line has 39 trains that are to be shifted to the new third line. This will have 15-20 minutes additional time. DeshGujarat