Among other dignitaries who will likely to grace the occasion include MPs, Chatarsingh Darbar, Vikram Verma, Sumitra Mahajan and Obedulla Khan Azmi respectively. Besides, senior officials of the western railway and the Railway Board including SK Vij, member (Engineering), Railway Board, general manager, Western Railway, Anoop Krishna Jhingaran and the Ratlam rail divisional manager, Prabhat Kumar Vajpayee will also be present at the foundation laying ceremony.

297 km rail line between Dahod and Indore will be completed at an estimated cost of Rs 678.56 crore. This rail line will pass through Jhabua, Sardarpur and Dhar and Pithampur which for long remained deprived of the rail link. Passing of the rail line from this region will bring about an all-round development in the socially and economically backward tribal regions of Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.

This new rail link, will provide an alternative rail route between Mumbai and Delhi via Dahod, Dhar, Indore, Dewas, Maxi, Guna, Shivpuri, Gwalior and Mathura. Besides, with the completion of this rail link, will help alleviate railway traffic pressure between Dahod-Mathura of the Western and West-central railway as well as between Delhi-Bhopal of the West and central railway. Dahod-Godhra rail line will have a total of 20 stations, 29 big bridges, 181 small bridges, besides five other important bridges.

Similarly, the new rail line between Chota Udaipur and Dhar, will link Indore, Pithampur to Baroda via Alirajpur and Chota Udaipur on the Mumbai-Delhi trunk route. This rail line will also help alleviate socio-economic development of the tribal regions of Alirajpur and Jobat. As Chota Udaipur is rich in mineral resources like Dolomite and Graphite with large forest cover, the new rail line will provide easy transportation facilities for these produce for its transportation to other parts of the country.

The gauge conversion work between Chota Udaipur and Pratap Nagar had started in September 2005. Thereafter, a decision was taken to extend this rail line from Chota Udaipur to Dhar, measuring a distance of 157 kms. Rail line between Chota Udaipur and Dhar will have a total of 14 stations, 30 big bridges, 85 small bridges and seven tunnels measuring a length of 9.85 kms.

Krishna K Jha