Western Railway has opened bidding for the civil and track work on two new broad-gauge lines in western and northern Kutch: Vayor to Lakhpat, and Deshalpar to Luna via Hajipir. The Ahmedabad Division tendered the Vayor-Lakhpat package at Rs 984.30 crore and the Deshalpar-Hajipir-Luna package at Rs 1,061.76 crore, both on an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) basis, DeshGujarat reported. Together the two notices come to about Rs 2,046 crore.
What the project covers
The Union Cabinet cleared the two lines in August 2025, according to ProjectsMonitor. Gujarat Samachar puts the combined route length at 145 km (164 track km) and the estimated cost at Rs 2,526.47 crore. The Deshalpar-Hajipir-Luna section accounts for 82.38 km of that.
- Stations: 13 new ones across the two lines.
- Reach: about 866 villages and 16 lakh people, by the railway’s estimate.
- Freight: salt, cement, coal, clinker and bentonite.
- Places linked: Hajipir, the Rann of Kutch, Dholavira, Koteshwar, Narayan Sarovar and Lakhpat Fort.
The tender values add up to roughly Rs 480 crore less than the sanctioned cost. The notices do not explain the gap. Separate contracts for buildings such as staff quarters are listed on tender portals, and land and other items usually sit outside the main civil package, but Western Railway has not published a breakdown.
Why these two lines matter for Kutch
Kutch is Gujarat’s largest district by area, and its rail map thins out sharply west and north of Bhuj. Deshalpar sits on the existing Bhuj-Naliya line, so the Hajipir-Luna branch would carry trains north from that corridor towards Hajipir and the edge of the Great Rann. The Vayor-Lakhpat line runs to the far western corner of the district, where the old port town of Lakhpat and the Koteshwar and Narayan Sarovar pilgrim sites now depend on long road trips.
The freight list explains much of the economics. Gujarat makes most of India’s salt, a large share of it in Kutch, and the district’s cement plants and bentonite mines move bulk material that costs less to haul by rail than by truck.
For residents, the change would be reliable public transport in talukas where buses are infrequent and distances are long. For pilgrims and tourists heading to Koteshwar, Narayan Sarovar, Lakhpat Fort or the white Rann, a train would offer an alternative to hiring a car.
Timeline and what to watch
DeshGujarat reports bid deadlines of February 9, 2027 for the Deshalpar-Hajipir-Luna package and February 10, 2027 for Vayor-Lakhpat, with a completion period of 913 days. Work on that schedule would not finish before the second half of 2029, even if contracts are awarded soon after bids close. Gujarat Samachar describes the target as three years.
- Bid response: how many contractors bid, and at what discount to the estimate, will show whether the industry sees the terrain and remoteness as manageable.
- Land: new alignments across grazing land and salt flats north and west of Bhuj can raise acquisition and environmental questions.
- Station list: Western Railway has not yet published names for all 13 stations, which will decide which villages get a stop.
Sources: DeshGujarat, Gujarat Samachar, ProjectsMonitor
This report was compiled and written with AI assistance from publicly reported sources, and reviewed for accuracy.