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Shirdi Train
New train will take you
to Shirdi in 7 hrs
Introduced in the last week of February, the daily passengers train goes via Daund towards Ahmednagar right up to Puntamba to Shirdi and covers a distance of 455.2 km. It takes around 13 hours to reach Shirdi. "However, this new train will go via Nashik right up to Manmad without halting at Puntamba to reach Shirdi. It will have only six halts after CST at Dadar, Kalyan, Igatpuri, Nasik, Kopargaon and Shirdi," said Sriniwas Mudgerikar, chief PRO of CR. The special train will leave CST on March 20 at 10.20 pm and reach Shirdi at 5 am the next day. It will then return to Mumbai on the same day. However, a senior CR official said that the special train would be run on experimental basis to see whether people would benefit from it. "If it is successful it will be introduced as weekend special in the future." MUMBAI: Thousands of devotees who flock to Shirdi to catch a glimpse of Sai Baba will be blessed with a direct train from Sunday. The train will leave CST at 10.55 pm and reach Shirdi at 10.30 am the next day. The much-awaited service will be flagged off by Union railway minister Lalu Prasad. "The inaugural train will flagged off on Saturday at 3 pm. But it will be from Puntamba to Shirdi. Regular services will commence from Sunday,'' an official said. "Putamba station is on the Manmad-Daund section of the CR. It is about 70 km from Manmad and about 20 km from Shirdi. Earlier, after reaching Puntamba the only way to get to Shirdi was by road. With the completion of the Puntamba-Shirdi rail project, pilgrims will be able to reach Shirdi without any break in journey,'' said chief PRO, CR, S C Mudgerikar. Initially, there would be just one service per day. "But depending on the demand, we can increase services subsequently,'' he added. Even though the project was sanctioned in 2000-01 at a cost of Rs 30.22 crore, its execution got delayed. "Getting land from the state government took longer than expected,'' an official said. Shirdi station will include
two waiting rooms and a dormitory. "The building is aesthetically designed
with a touch of local architecture. It will have a 500 metre-long platform
to accommodate a 22-coach train,'' an official said. The entire project
has been completed at a cost of Rs 78 crore.
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