Due to its central location, Nagpur is a very important railway junction and a transit for almost all the trains that connect the country lengthwise and breadthwise, especially trains connecting India’s four major metropoles (Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, and Kolkata) located in the four corners of the country.
A total of 242 trains from various destinations halt at Nagpur, making it one of the most busiest junctions all over the country. These include passenger, express, mail, Duronto, rajdhani, garib rath trains. Of these 65 are daily trains and 26 terminate/originate from Nagpur. Almost 150,000 passengers board/leave Nagpur Railway Station Daily. The main railway station in Nagpur city is the Nagpur railway station, while the much smaller Ajni, Itwari, Kalamna, Kamptee, and Khapri are the other railway stations in the city’s vicinity. There is a long felt need for a Nagpur metro rail service on the lines of Delhi metro, as it is expected that Nagpur is set to grow exponentially in the coming years. Recently Laursen and Toubro (LandT) was appointed to prepare a report on transport needs of Nagpur Metropoliton Area by 2020. In its report, LandT has recommended an elevated Monorail system and an MMTS (Multimodel Mass Transit System) for Nagpur. It also suggested minimum of 1500 city buses and BRTS (Bus Rapid Transit System) on selected routes.
Nagpur railway station was built in 1867 and is located in center of Nagpur. It is located on foot of Sitabuldi hill which has the historic fort on it. It is the headquarters of Nagpur division of central and south-eastern Indian railway lines. Another nearby station Ajni serves mostly as cargo terminal. British India had opened the Bombay–Bhusawal–Nagpur line in 1867 to link the cotton growing Vidarbha region with port city of Bombay. Later this line was extended to Howrah station on east.
The main building is made up of pink sandstone just like other colonial structures of Reserve Bank of India, Vidhan Bhavan, Nagpur. The building is declared as heritage site. Ministry of Indian railways has recently selected Nagpur Railway Station for development and a one time package of INR 1 billion has been allocated for its up gradation of existing station. A new flyover has been built in front of station to reduce traffic congestion. Another world class station is coming up at MIHAN to serve Nagpur. Recently closed circuit camera vigilance has been put on Nagpur station.
Apart from Nagpur Main Railway Station, there are several local stations within Nagpur. These include Itwari, Ajni, Kalamna, Khapri, Godhni, Bharatwada, Gumgaon, Kapmtee, Kanhan, Ramtek, Butibori. Itwari has been recently converted into terminus by South East Central Railway. It is the terminus for many passenger and local MEMU trains. Local trains run from Itwari to various north, north-east and eastern sub-suburbs of Nagpur, Ramtek>>Kanhan>>Kamptee>>Kalamna>>Itwari being the hottest for pilgrims. Many passenger trains to destinations like Chhindwara (Narrow Gauge), Jabalpur, Raipur, Gondia, Tatanagar, originate here. Apart from that many trains running on Nagpur-Howrah route halt here. Itwari is mostly used by traders and businessmen from North, North-east suburbs and eastern parts of Nagpur.
Ajni is another major station lying on Nagpur-Mumbai/Chennai route and comes under Central Railway. Almost all the trains have a brief stop of about 2 minutes at this station. This station is mainly used by residents of Central, West, South-West and Southern suburbs of Nagpur and short-distance daily travellers. Trains terminating at Nagpur get almost 80 percent emptied here. And trains originating from Nagpur filled here with almost 40 percent.
