The Commissioner of Railway Safety inspected a newly built stretch of broad-gauge track between Aliyawada and Jamnagar on August 7, running a special train at raised speed over the section, according to DeshGujarat. Regular services on the stretch were expected to begin the same day once the inspection cleared. Railways asked residents near the tracks to stay clear during the trial run.
This single section is part of a much bigger job: doubling the Rajkot-Kanalus line, a 111-km stretch that carries passengers and freight through Rajkot and Jamnagar districts. The Union Cabinet cleared the project years ago at an escalated cost of Rs 1,168.13 crore, with a four-year construction window, according to the Press Information Bureau‘s record of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approval. The line reaching the field only now shows how long large rail projects in Saurashtra take from sanction to steel on the ground.
Why Rajkot needed a second line
The existing single track between Rajkot and Kanalus had become congested, with capacity utilisation touching 157.5 percent against the safe operating limit, the PIB release noted. Thirty pairs of passenger and mail-express trains already run on the corridor, and freight traffic in petroleum products, coal, cement, fertiliser and food grain competes for the same slots. A second parallel line lets trains run in both directions simultaneously instead of waiting on loop lines for oncoming traffic to clear, which is the main reason doubling projects cut delays on busy single-track corridors.
Building the Aliyawada-Jamnagar stretch required land from six villages in Jamnagar taluka, including Khimrana, Sheikhpat, Aliya, Moda, Chawda and Jamvanthali, with 57 land occupiers notified, per Loktej‘s reporting on the acquisition process, which began back in 2022. That gap between land notification and an operational line illustrates the years of survey, acquisition and construction that precede any inauguration announcement.
What it means for Saurashtra
For Rajkot and Jamnagar residents, a working second line should translate into fewer scheduling delays for existing mail and express services and more room to add trains as demand grows. The freight side matters just as much: PIB’s project justification pointed to future traffic from Reliance Petroleum, Essar Oil and Tata Chemicals as reason enough to build extra capacity now rather than wait for the existing line to choke completely. Industrial freight moving faster and more predictably through the corridor has knock-on effects for the ports and refineries clustered around Jamnagar, one of the country’s busiest petrochemical hubs.
What to watch next
The Aliyawada-Jamnagar clearance is one segment of the wider 111-km doubling job. How quickly the remaining stretches toward Kanalus follow is an open question. Commuters should watch for Western Railway announcements on any schedule changes or new train additions once the doubled sections stabilise in daily operation.
Sources: DeshGujarat, Press Information Bureau, Loktej
This report was compiled and written with AI assistance from publicly reported sources, and reviewed for accuracy.