Commissioner of Railway Safety, Central Circle, Mumbai inspected the newly constructed double line between Washimbe and Bhalwani stations of Solapur Division on October 26, 2021 and October 27, 2021. The doubling work of Washimbe – Bhalwani section of 26.33 kms is a part of Daund – Gulbarga doubling project. This doubling work included construction of 65 bridges (one important and 2 major bridges), 3 new station buildings i.e., Jeur, Pophlaj and Washimbe and new Electronic Interlocking at 4 stations. CRS inspected all safety and safety related matters, electrification and signalling works carried out.
With commissioning of this section, a major bottleneck at Pophlaj station where trains used to be reversed for crossing on this single line stretch on golden quadrilateral is eliminated. This will further speed up the trains and reduce the travel time considerably and more trains can be run. After the trial run, 01020 was the first train in UP direction and 01019 in down direction.
Neighboring areas around such as Daund Taluka, Karmala Taluka etc. are likely to be developed due to this doubling project.
Anil Kumar Lahoti, General manager , Central Railway said that the doubling of this section has helped to solve a major bottleneck in operation.
