With a stretch of 299.55 kilometres (186.13 mi), this corridor passes through the Aravalli Ranges of North Gujarat and the Udaipur division of Rajasthan, where there are zinc and phosphate mines in Zawar and Umra, making it a direct and important mineral transportation route to the rest of India.
Routes and divisions
This mainline route is divided into two sections:
The first section is of Ahmedabad–Himmatnagar Junction, with the length of 88 kilometres (55 mi), comes under the jurisdiction of Western Railways.
The second section is Himmatnagar Junction–Udaipur City, with a length of 210 kilometres (130 mi), comes under the jurisdiction of North Western Railways.[1]
It also contains two branch lines of this corridor; both come in the Western Railways zone. These are:
The first branch line is Himmatnagar Junction–Khed Bramha with a length of 58 kilometres (36 mi)
The second branch line is Nadiad–Kapadvanj–Modasa Branch line with the length of 138 kilometres (86 mi)[2]
History
This route was opened in 1879 by Ahmedabad–Parantij Railway up to Prantij and Himmatnagar, and later it was extended in two phases: The first phase was Himmatnagar–Idar which was opened in the same year; then in 1901, the second phase of Idar–Khed Bramha was opened. This gave a total length of 146 kilometres (91 mi) from Ahmedabad and was a metre-gauge railway line.[3][4]
In 1886 the survey and construction of a 210-kilometre-long (130 mi) Himmatnagar–Udaipur line, also a metre-gauge railway line, was started; rail operations began in 1891 with flagging off Delhi Sarai Rohilla–Ahmedabad Express for direct connection to Delhi and Udaipur from Ahmedabad via Himmatnagar.[5][6] This 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in) line came to be known as the metre-gauge mainline with the other metre-gauge line via Palanpur Junction, Marwar Junction, and Ajmer Junction being called the Chord Line. In 1997, this metre-gauge "Chord Line", via Palanpur, Marwar, and Ajmer Junctions, became a 1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in) broad-gauge line called the Delhi-Jaipur-Ahmedabad Mainline.
The branch-line of Nadiad–Kapadvanj, a narrow-gauge railway section, was opened on 5 March 1916 by Guzerat Railway Company, with a length of 49 kilometres (30 mi).[7] In 1961, it was converted to broad gauge and in the same year the survey and construction of Kapadvanj–Modasa section, an extension of the branch line, was started with a planned length of 89 kilometres (55 mi).[8] It was halted for two decades, with construction only revived in 2000; it became operational on 28 October 2001, with a total length of 138 kilometres (86 mi) and direct connections to Nadiad.[9][10][11]
Gauge conversion
The broad-gauge conversion of the whole mainline from Udaipur to Ahmedabad is complete. Ongoing conversion of the branch lines, jointly carried out by Western Railways and North Western Railways, commenced 1 January 2017.[12] The Modasa–Shamlaji rail line with a length of 26 kilometres (16 mi) is planned for construction; this will connect the Nadiad–Modasa branch line with the Ahmedabad–Udaipur mainline, shortening the routes of Mumbai, Ahmedabad and the rest of Gujarat to North India, with additional direct passenger services.[13]
In this joint project, the first section of the mainline from the Western Railways zone side was fully converted into broad gauge; DEMU (diesel-electrical multiple unit) trains started running on the route from 15 October 2019.[14] The broad-gauge conversion was completed on 10 August 2022, but trains are yet[when?] to start. There has as yet been no official inauguration.[needs update]
A Trial Run of an empty train on the newly constructed broad gauge line.
Current broad-gauge trains
Post completion of the broad-gauge (BG) line, Indian Railways is running a small number of trains on this line, with may be expanded later.[timeframe?] Trains currently running on this line are as follows:
