Nagpur: The Central Railway has proposed to extend 1103/11040 Gondia-Kolhapur-Gondia Maharashtra Express to Rewa in Madhya Pradesh by merging newly introduced Itwari-Rewa Express operated by the West Central Railway (WCR).
Rewa is 480km from Gondia.
The Maharashtra Express is already a slow train (48km/hour).
If extended up to Rewa, the train will traverse a distance of 1,816km.
At current speed, the travel between Kolhapur-Rewa will take over 38 hours — Kolhapur-Pune (7.30 hrs), Pune-Nagpur (17.45 hrs), Nagpur-Gondia (2.30 hrs) & Gondia-Rewa (10.30 hrs).
Central Railway chief public relations officer (CPRO) Shivaji Sutar said, “The proposal is at an initial level and no authority has approved the plan.
It is too early to comment on the issue.” As the train belongs to the Central Railway, on June 4, 2021, the chief passenger transportation manager (CPTM) wrote to officials in both the divisions about the proposal.
The letter speaks about discontinuing newly launched tri-weekly 01753/01754 Itwari-Rewa Express.
Itwari-Rewa train was flagged off by railway minister Piyush Gopal on February 21, 2021.
Former ZRUCC member Pravin Dabli said, “Earlier, several express trains like Maharashtra, Vidarbha, Deekshabhoomi, Gondwana, Jabalpur have been hijacked from Nagpur.
While trains from the city are extended to other cities, no trains from other towns are extended to Nagpur despite all requisite infrastructure.” Dabli demanded 12070 Gondia-Raigarh Express should also be extended till Nagpur and from Raigarh till Bhubaneshwar-Puri so that people from Nagpur get a direct train to Odissa.
However, Central Railway feels currently the Maharashtra Express runs with four rakes.
The train is primarily maintained at Kolhapur.
The merging of Itwari-Rewa train will have daily train between Nagpur-Rewa as additional rakes will be available, as per Central Railway.
Another advantage Central Railway officials feel is that lie-over of 12 hours of the Maharashtra Express rake at Gondia and its maintenance at Kolhapur will be eliminated.
Besides, people from MP will get a train service to Pune.
The officials feel that Railway Board will also save Rs100 crore from two rakes and one locomotive costing Rs20 crore.