In the last five years, Western Railway has contributed astoundingly in the infrastructural development of railways in the state of Gujarat. Tremendous boost has been to projects like gauge conversion, electrification, doubling and elimination of unmanned level crossings along with enhancing passenger amenities. Continuing in this series, Western Railway has commissioned 71.58 km of doubling work completed of Viramgam-Samakhiyali Doubling Project. On 23rd & 24th March, 2021, Commissioner of Railway Safety of Western Circle conducted an inspection of the work at various sections of the project.
In the recent inspection conducted by CRS, Dhanala-Wadharwa (25.383 km) & Maliya Miyana-Surbari ‘B’ Cabin (10.387 km) sections of the Viramgam-Samakhiyali Doubling Project were permitted to open for passenger and goods traffic. Earlier in this financial year, two sections viz Sadla-Jatpipli (18.223 km) and Sukhpur-Dhanala (17.587 km) sections of the project were commissioned in the month of August 2020 and March 2021 respectively. It is worthwhile to mention that all of these projects were completed inspite of the limitations & toughest challenges due to COVID-19. With the commissioning of Dhanala-Wadharwa & Maliya Miyana-Surbari section, 71.58 km of doubling work has been completed of this project in the current financial year 2020-21.
Dhanala-Wadharwa section traffic is permitted at 95 kmph and on Maliya Miyana-Surbari ‘B’ Cabin section 80 kmph has been permitted for now. The project is considered as one of the super critical projects of Indian Railways, since the Viramgam-Samakhiyali section is a major freight generating corridor of the Railways. WR’s Chief Administrative Officer (Construction) Sudhanshu Sharma along with his team has shown commendable performance in the successful commissioning of the newly opened sections, which will increase the line capacity in a humongous way and will benefit the railways as well as localities connected on this line. It will ease travelling for local public and bring socio-economic growth in these areas. With the newly commissioned sections of the project, collective development of the area is at its doorstep.