thereaderwiki.com

Central Railway zone

  • ️Sat Apr 16 1853

Central Railway (abbreviated CR) is one of the 19 zones of Indian Railways.[1] Its headquarters are located at Mumbai.[2] It has the distinction of operating the first passenger railway line in India, which opened from Mumbai to Thane on 16 April 1853 (171 years ago).

The railway zone was formed on 5 November 1951 by grouping several government-owned railways, including the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, the Scindia State Railway of the former princely state of Gwalior, Nizam State Railway, Wardha Coal State Railway and the Dholpur State Railway.[3][4]

The Central Railway zone formerly included large parts of Madhya Pradesh and part of southern Uttar Pradesh, which made it the largest railway zone in India in terms of area, track mileage and staff. These areas became the new West Central Railway zone in April 2003.

The Central Railway General Manager's official residence (erstwhile GIPR agent's residence), 'Glenogle'-a Grade II-B heritage bungalow, is located on Bhausaheb Hire Marg (Mount Pleasant Road), adjacent to the Maharashtra Chief minister's official residence 'Varsha' in Malabar Hill, Mumbai.

One of the oldest and important railway project of central railway zone was Kalyan-Ahmednagar railway project, which was in planning stage since British regime. It was referred to as 3rd ghat project. A survey was carried out in 1973, 2000, 2006, 2014 etc, and the project was in the Railways Board pink book in 2010, but unfortunately the project was not started. The alignment length of this project was 184 km, and it could have been the shortest route for Marathwada, Andhra and Telangana. The major challenge for this project is 18.96 km long tunnel in Malshej Ghat section.[5] Malshej Kriti samiti is following for Kalyan-Ahmednagar railway project. Kalyan-Murbad section which is first phase of this project is already under survey stage.[6]

    • Mumbai CSMT-Wadala Road-Bandra-Goregaon
    • Thane-Vashi-Panvel
    • Daund-Manmad
    • Bhusawal-Khandwa
    • Amravati-Narkher
    • Vasai Road-Diva-Panvel
    • Panvel-Karjat
    • Badnera-Amravati
    • Daund-Baramati
    • Puntamba-Shirdi
    • Chalisgaon-Dhule
    • Pachora-Jamner (NG)
    • Pulgaon-Arvi (NG)
    • Murtijapur-Yavatmal (NG)
    • Murtijapur-Achalapur (NG)
    • Jalamb-Khamgaon
    • Majri-Pimpalkutti
    • Neral-Matheran
    • Amla-Chhindwara
  • Mumbai-Thane-Kalyan-Karjat/Kasara sub-urban section
  • Mumbai-Bhusawal-Akola-Nagpur
  • Mumbai-Bhusawal-Khandwa
  • Itarsi-Nagpur-Sevagram-Majri-Balharshah
  • Mumbai-Pune-Daund-Solapur-Kalaburgi-Wadi
  • Mumbai-Pune-Miraj-Hubli-Bengaluru-Chennai
  • Daund-Ahmednagar-Manmad
  • Puntamba-Sai nagar Shirdi
  • Miraj-Kurduwadi
  • Latur-Kurduwadi

Central railway zone connects to other Zones of Indian railways as at:

Bandra, Goregaon, Dadar, Vasai Road

  • Pimpalkutti
  • Akola Jn
  • Khandwa Jn
  • Ankai Jn (MMR-AWB-J-PBN-NED route)

Constructed in 1907, the narrow-gauge Matheran Hill Railway connects Neral on the Mumbai-Chennai main line with the hill station of Matheran in the Western Ghats, east of Mumbai. Neral is linked to Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus by frequent suburban trains. Steam engines have now been replaced by diesel locomotives. The route is noted for its sharp curves.

The central railway covers a large part of the state of Maharashtra and small part of Southern Madhya Pradesh and North-Eastern Karnataka. It is organized into five divisions: Mumbai, Bhusawal, Nagpur, Solapur and Pune. The details of the network by division are as follows[7]

  • Mumbai CSMT-Dadar-Kurla-Thane
  • Thane-Diva Jn-Kalyan
    • Diva Jn-Panvel-Roha
      • Panvel-Jasai-Uran
        • Jasai-JNPT
    • Diva Jn-Vasai Road
  • Kalyan Jn-Kasara-Igatpuri (Inclusive)
  • Kalyan Jn-Karjat Jn-Lonavala (Inclusive)
    • Neral Jn-Matheran (narrow-gauge)
    • Karjat Jn-Panvel
    • Karjat Jn-Khopoli

Malshej Kriti Samiti is following for Kalyan-Ahmednagar railway project. Kalyan-Murbad section which is first phase of this project is already under survey stage.[6]

  • Manmad-Indore (project scrapped)
  • Bhusawal-Badnera-Nagpur (exclude)
  • Bhusawal-Khandwa-Itarsi (exclude)
  • Jalgaon-Nandurbar-Udhna (exclude)
  • Chalisgaon-Dhule
  • Khamgaon - Jalamb
  • Pachora-Jamner
  • Manmad-Aurangabad (exclude)
  • Manmad-Daund (exclude)
  • Mandmad-Nasik-Igatpuri (exclude)
  • Akola-Nanded (exclude)

The number of stations category-wise under these five railway divisions under the Central Railway Zones are as follows (as of 2008) : A-1 : 7, A : 20, B : 10, C : 80, D : 45, E : 221, F : 93, Total : 476[10]

  • Solapur Jn -Tuljapur- Osmanabad. (New Rail Line survey completed but work yet to start)
  • Nanded - Yavatmal - Wardha. (Work under process)
  • Ashti-Parli Vaijnath line (work under progress). Ahmednagar-Ashti 67 km completed. (Project :- Ahmedanagar- Beed - Parli)
  • Phaltan - Baramati (approved, but work yet to start)
  • Kolhapur-Vaibhavwadi line (survey under progress)
  • Aurangabad-Shani shingnapur-Ahmednagar line (survey completed, but work yet to start)
  • Khamgaon-Jalna (survey completed, but work yet to start)
  • Latur-Latur Road-Ahmedpur-Nanded (survey completed, but work yet to start)
  • Latur Road-Jalkot-Mukhed-Biloli-Bodhan (announced but not yet taken up)
  • Latur-Ausa-Nilanga-Omerga-Aland-Gulbarga (survey under progress)
  • Bhigvan-Gulbarga (Doubling completed)
  • Pune-Miraj-Londa-Hubli (Doubling in progress)
  • Panvel-Karjat
  • Karjat-Khopoli
  • Kalyan-Kasara
  • Kalyan-Karjat
  • Sewagram Jn-Balharshah Jn
  • Nagpur-Wardha
  • Manmad-Igatpuri [11]
  • Mumbai CSMT-Kalyan

Some of the major trains operated by Central Railway zone are as follows:

  1. ^ "Ministry of Railways (Railway Board)".
  2. ^ "Railway Zones and Divisions in The Country". Press Information Bureau. Ministry of Railways (Government of India). 21 July 2017. Retrieved 1 January 2025.
  3. ^ Rao, M.A. (1988). Indian Railways, New Delhi: National Book Trust, p.42
  4. ^ a b "Central Railways-Construction > Projects". Archived from the original on 1 May 2008.
  5. ^ "कल्याण-नगर रेल्वे हा विकासाचा मार्ग" [Kalyan-Nagar Railway is the path of development] (in Marathi). Maharashtra Times.
  6. ^ a b "संजीवनी देणारा माळशेज घाट रेल्वे मार्ग" [Revitalizing Malshej Ghat railway line] (in Marathi). Loksatta.
  7. ^ "Central Railways". Archived from the original on 9 May 2008.
  8. ^ "Work on Nashik-Pune rail route begins". IBN Live. Archived from the original on 19 July 2012. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
  9. ^ "Maharashtra Government to share cost for Pune-Nashik, Karad-Chiplun rail links". The Economic Times.
  10. ^ "CATEGORISATION OF STATIONS" (PDF). Retrieved 15 January 2016.
  11. ^ "MAHARAIL - Maharashtra Rail Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (MRIDC)".

18°58′30″N 72°49′33″E / 18.97500°N 72.82583°E