NAGPUR: The erstwhile Itwari – Kelod Passenger service has now been extended to Bhimalgondi, a newly completed station about 94 kilometres from Itwari, for one of its two daily runs.
The first commercial extended service to Bhimalgondi started on Saturday, 11th of May 2019, from Itwari station on South East Central Railway (SECR).
With the extension to Bhimalgondi, the timetable also needed revision. The train is now scheduled to start from Itwari at 07:45 and reach Bhimalgondi station at 10:15 hrs. On the return trip, the train is scheduled to leave Bhimalgondi at 11:15 hrs and reach Itwari station at 13:50 hours.
However, the train reached Bhimalgondi around an hour late on its first run, and on the return trip, was about 1 hour 20 minutes late reaching Itwari station.
At several stations on the extended stretch, local residents braved the heat and gathered on the platforms to witness the arrival of the train; the first to do so in three and a half years.
The last narrow gauge commercial passenger service ran on the route on 30th November 2015. The Nagpur – Chhindwara – Jabalpur route was subsequently closed for gauge conversion.
On the Itwari – Chhindwara route, gauge conversion has so far been completed between Itwari and Bhimalgondi (94 km) and Bhandarkund – Chhindwara (35 km). The remaining 22 kilometres of the route, between Bhimalgondi and Bhandarkund, pass through tougher ghat terrain. Commissioning of this section is expected to take a few more months, according to sources in SECR.
Electrification of the route is also underway, with work at various stages of completion between Kelod and Bhimalgondi.
Several speed restrictions, as low as 20-30 kph, are in place between Itwari and Kelod for distances that stretch several kilometres. It is unclear if or when these restrictions will be lifted.