Vadodara

According to Divisional Railway Manager(DRM) of Vadodara Division of Western Railway Asutosh Gangal, the Railway Ministry has approved Rs 2,000 crore investment to connect the city of Vadodara to ‘Statue of Unity’ site at Sardar Sarovar Narmada dam in Kevadia Colony through seamless broad gauge railway line.

Statue of Unity is world’s tallest statue under construction. The statue will feature Shri Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. The site of the Statue of Unity is located in eastern direction of Vadodara city.

At present, Vadodara is connected to Dabhoi through broad gauge railway line in eastern direction. Dabhoi is further connected to Chandod through a narrow gauge railway line which will be under proposed project converted to broad gauge at a cost of Rs 1500 crore. Chandod under the new project will need to be connected to Rajpipla through a new broad gauge line in length of 37 km. Thus the Railway department will need to acquire land only for Chandod-Rajpipla route to execute this project.

According to Gangal, new connectivity when achieved will make it possible for travelers to arrive in Vadodara by air and take train to Statue of Unity site from thereon. New connectivity will also make possible for tourists to have seamless rail journey from Ahmedabad, Delhi, Mumbai and other places via Vadodara.

As Rajpipla is already connected to Ankleshwar through broad gauge line in southern direction, it will emerge as railway junction once new broad gauge line connectivity to Vadodara is achieved.

In other development, 38 km Chhuchapura-Nasvadi-Tanakhala narrowguage line which is defunct at present will be converted to broad gauge at a cost of Rs 500 crore.

Target of completion of both Statue of Unity project and this railway line is two year.

– DeshGujarat