Shakuntala Railways still operates only one round trip per day on narrow gauge routes.
The 190-km long narrow gauge railway line called Shakuntala Railways was constructed during the British Raj between Yavatmal and Murtijapur
Indian Railways has refuted the report that claimed it is paying Britishers for the Shakuntala Railway line and said no train service presently runs on this network.
According to some reports, India pays the Britishers Rs 1 crore for operating trains on a 190-km long narrow gauge railway line called Shakuntala Railways was constructed during the British Raj between Yavatmal and Murtijapur.
However, Shivaji Sutar, Chief PRO, Central Railway said the narrow gauge line is built on Indian Railway land and the railway is not paying anything to the company/Britishers.
Sutar also clarified presently, no train service runs on the Shakuntala Railway line (Murtazapur- Achalpur and Murtazapur-Yavatmal).
“Moreover, Shakuntala Railway Guage conversion (Narrow to Broad Guage) FLS (Final location survey) has been sanctioned in Oct 2022 and LOA issued in Jan 2023,” he added.
The Great Indian Peninsular Railway (GIPR), which ran throughout Central India during the colonial period, operated trains on this track. Strangely, this route was ignored when the railways was nationalised in 1952.
In 1910, Killick-Nixon, a private British company, founded Shakuntala Railways. Currently, the 190 km journey by railway between Yavatmal and Achalpur in the Amravati district takes about 20 hours.
Constructed in Manchester in 1921 and Shakuntala Railways was used from 1923 on for more than 70 years. On April 15, 1994, a diesel motor was installed to replace the original engine. The Central Province Railway Company was established as the result of the company’s joint endeavour with the British colonial administration in India. (CPRC).
The purpose of the narrow gauge railway was to transport cotton from Yavatmal to Mumbai (Bombay), where it was then shipped to Manchester in England.
Earlier, former Union Minister of Railways Suresh Prabhu approved 1,500 crore for the conversion of the Yavatmal-Murtizapur-Achalpur railway route from narrow gauge to broad gauge.
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