31 May,2019 07:08 AM IST | | Rajendra B. Aklekar
Devendra Sharma served as the Central Railway general manager for 20 years
Devendra Kumar Sharma, the longest-serving Central Railway general manager in the past 20 years - from November 2016 to May 2019 - said that the heavily saturated Central Railway is facing its most critical challenges currently. He had never faced such challenges in his career, said Sharma who retires today.
Sharma was personally congratulated on Tuesday by Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal for three big achievements in Mumbai - the first push-pull Rajdhani of Central Railway, completion of Parel Terminus and the new suburban sector of Uran till Kharkopar.
"The Rajdhani has been important for CR as it was the first one to be converted to push-pull, a pioneering project on Indian Railways. It has reduced the Mumbai-Delhi journey time by five hours as compared to other express trains running on this route. This is now the fastest train for the passengers of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh to Delhi/Mumbai via the Itarsi route," Sharma said.
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The Parel Terminus project too has helped decongest Dadar. "It has become an important junction between the Central and Western lines. Considering the increasing footfalls, there is a plan to make a new suburban terminus for EMU local trains at Parel," he added.
Speaking of the Nerul-Belapur-Uran Railway project, Sharma said it was envisaged to accelerate the growth of Navi Mumbai by providing direct access between Uran town, JNPT and the newly-developed area of Mumbai Metropolitan Region as well as Greater Mumbai.
The cost of the project was shared by Railways and CIDCO in the ratio of 33:67." The stretch from Nerul to Kharkopar and Belapur to Kile junction has been completed," Sharma said."I will be flagging off the push-pull Intercity Mumbai-Pune express today. I had wished for it as a young officer and has been fulfilled," he concluded.
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