Nagpur: The Railway Board has restored the popular Nagpur-Wardha-Nagpur passenger train. The train has now been reintroduced from April 22 onwards ex-Wardha and from April 23 ex-Nagpur.
The Board has replaced the traditional ICF coach with MEMU that would ensure grant of more stoppages on Wardha route for the benefit of travellers. Stoppages for the train would include Sewagram, Warud Orange City, Seloo Road, Tuljapur, Sindi, Borkhedi, Butibori, Gumgaon, Khapri and Ajni.
From Wardha, the Train No. 01373 will start at 17.15 hrs and reach Nagpur at 19.30 and run for six days a week, except Sunday.
The ex-Nagpur Train No. 01374 will start at 08.00 hrs and reach Wardha at 09.53 hrs and will not be available on Saturday. The train will have eight coaches and the distance of nearly 75 kms will take nearly 1.45 hrs to negotiate, which is something strange as one expected faster run owing to the introduction of MEMU coaches. The same rake will be utilised to run Wardha to Amravati during the spare time on Sunday.
The rake will be maintained by Bhusawal Division after a run of 15 days. On Saturday, during lie over, the rake will be utilised to run Wardha to Ballarshah service.
The restoration of the passenger service is going to provide respite to travellers, especially those who have to daily travel between Nagpur and Wardha. The morning passenger train was quite popular due to convenient timings of operations. Especially for students and those who had to travel to Wardha to attend office, the train was very convenient till the outbreak of the pandemic, which disrupted the movement as restrictions kicked in.
Now with the introduction of MEMU rake, the train will run faster as the route is having permissible speed for 130 km/hr for LHB rakes. The Board, on recommendation of Nagpur Division of Central Railway, has added new stoppages on Wardha route that would ease pressure on other long distance trains.
Earlier, when Nagpur-Wardha and Wardha-Nagpur passenger was operating with ICF rake, the train was prone to detention enroute as its maximum speed was never above50 km/hr.
As its timing used to clash with Mail/Express trains, the train would often be taken on loop lines, resulting in its detention. Also, the utilisation of MEMU rake for running weekend services to Ballarshah and Amravati ex-Wardha and back would also prove useful in benefiting the travellers.
