Union Home Minister Amit Shah is scheduled to open, launch or lay foundation stones for railway works worth more than Rs 1,542 crore at Sabarmati in Ahmedabad on Sunday, 27 September. The package bundles a Rs 700 crore freight locomotive shed, a trial of LNG fuel on a passenger rake, collision-avoidance equipment on two trunk routes and a second track through west Ahmedabad, according to ANI and IANS.
Ceremonies like this tend to lump finished assets with projects that are years away. For anyone who lives along these lines or rides them, the useful question is which parts change things now and which only start the clock.
Ready now: the freight shed and the LNG trial
The WAG-12 shed at Sabarmati is built to maintain 300 of Indian Railways’ 12,000-horsepower electric freight locomotives, the heaviest haulers in its fleet. IANS reported that 154 locomotives are homed there, with the rest due by 2027-28. These engines haul long, heavy goods trains, and a maintenance base in Ahmedabad keeps them close to the container and bulk traffic moving out of Gujarat’s ports.
The LNG project is smaller than the “first LNG train” label suggests. Railway engineers converted two 1,400 hp driving power cars at the Sabarmati coaching depot to run on a mix of diesel and liquefied natural gas. Both agencies reported that LNG replaces close to 40% of the diesel these cars burn. IANS added that the cars completed more than 2,000 km of field trials and will save about Rs 23.9 lakh a year for one eight-coach rake. That saving is modest. The test is whether the railways extends the conversion to other diesel power cars on lines that have not been electrified.
Starting now: Kavach and automatic signalling
Shah will lay the foundation stone for Kavach, the indigenous automatic train protection system, on 404 km of track: 157 km between Ahmedabad and Palanpur and 247 km between Ahmedabad and Samakhiyali. The work is budgeted at about Rs 411 crore. Kavach applies the brakes if a loco pilot passes a red signal or overspeeds, and it is meant to stop two trains on the same line from colliding.
These are the routes that matter for north Gujarat and Kutch. Trains to Palanpur continue to Rajasthan and Delhi. The Samakhiyali line carries passenger trains to Gandhidham and Bhuj, including the new Bhuj to Barauni Amrit Bharat Express, along with freight bound for the Kutch ports.
A second project worth Rs 118.83 crore will bring automatic block signalling to 122.57 km on the Sabarmati to Kalol to Bhandu Motidau and Sabarmati to Sanand to Jakhwada sections, per Asianet Newsable. Automatic signals divide a line into short blocks, which lets more trains run safely one behind the other. On the Sanand side, that capacity serves an industrial belt with automobile and electronics plants.
The one Ahmedabad residents will notice: Sabarmati to Sarkhej
The Rs 313.27 crore doubling of the 21 km Sabarmati to Sarkhej line runs through the heart of west Ahmedabad, past Gandhigram and Vastrapur stations. The project includes 16 minor bridges, 13 road underbridges, one major bridge and work at six level crossings, according to IANS. The target date is March 2028.
For commuters on the western side of the city, the level crossings and underbridges are the part to follow. Construction will bring closures and diversions on congested roads, and the underbridges should cut waits at railway gates once they open. Look for diversion notices from Western Railway and the city traffic police when work starts on each crossing.
What to watch
The agency reports gave no completion date for Kavach on the Palanpur and Samakhiyali lines, so the first sign of progress will be contract awards for the two sections. The Sarkhej doubling has a public deadline of March 2028, which gives west Ahmedabad a clear yardstick.
Sources: ANI (via LatestLY), IANS (via Punjab Kesari English), Asianet Newsable
This report was compiled and written with AI assistance from publicly reported sources, and reviewed for accuracy.