Also read: Matheran Hill Railway raked in Rs 1 crore from April to August this year

“I had initiated it. The idea was to connect all coastal areas with the hinterland. I had requested the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to implement the Sagarmala project (interlinking between railways, roads, and water transports), which he announced on August 15, 2003 from the Red Fort, when I was heading the interlinking of rivers so that all ports, minor and major, get developed along with the hinterland. Supplementing that as Minister of Railways, I started working on this rail connectivity,” former railway minister Suresh Prabhu told mid-day.

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“I had already included in my budget Karhad-Chiplun on Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model and the Kolhapur-Vaibhavwadi rail link, for which budget provision had been made. So it was a very comprehensive strategy of all minor ports and rail connections,” Prabhu added.

To promote tourism

This time Rane has requested a 21st Century tourist/toy train service on the lines of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway or the Matheran Hill Railway in the Konkan region in the interest of promoting tourism in Sindhudurg district.

As per details available, the proposed project is about 127-km long along the coast and Rane had first written a letter to Vaishnaw about it in 2021. As the project is proposed to be done with partial investment from the Maharashtra government, Rane met Shinde on Thursday seeking his intervention. 

127
Length of the proposed line in km