Indian Railways has cleared a Rs 497 crore project to double the 10.86-km Chouk-Karjat rail line in Maharashtra, aimed at easing traffic on a busy route.

The Chouk-Karjat stretch falls under Central Railway and is currently a single line.

It forms part of the larger Panvel-Chouk-Karjat corridor, which carries both passenger and goods trains.

Right now, having just one track means trains often have to wait for each other to pass, which slows things down for both commuters and freight movement.

Doubling the line adds a second parallel track, so trains in both directions can run at the same time without holding each other up.

The project has been sanctioned under a wider railway programme that covers line doubling, tripling, quadrupling, flyovers and bypasses across the country.

The goal is to remove bottlenecks on sections where traffic has outgrown existing capacity.

Once the Chouk-Karjat doubling is complete, Indian Railways expects to run five extra passenger trains in each direction every day.

That’s a meaningful jump for commuters along this stretch, who currently deal with limited train frequency because of the single-track constraint.

Freight movement stands to gain too. The upgraded section is projected to handle an additional 18.35 million tonnes of goods traffic a year.

Railways officials expect this to cut down the time freight trains currently spend waiting for a clear track, helping goods move faster along the corridor. This isn’t an isolated development for rail connectivity in Maharashtra.

Just a day earlier, on 17 September, Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar flagged off a new direct train service between Pune and Beed, adding a fresh rail link for the Marathwada region.

Between the two announcements, the state’s rail network is seeing visible movement on both passenger connectivity and freight capacity fronts this month.

For now, the Chouk-Karjat project remains at the approval stage, with construction timelines yet to be announced by Indian Railways.

Discover the next big investment! Tradz by EquityPandits’ IPO screener helps you identify promising initial public offerings. Download Tradz by EquityPandit and get ahead of the curve! Sign Up Now & Find Your Next IPO Gem!