Govt approves Pune-Nashik high speed rail connectivity, Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis confirms

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday said the Ministry of Railways has accorded "in principle approval" for the Pune-Nashik high-speed rail project.

Fadnavis made the announcement after a meeting with Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

He said officials from Maharashtra and the railway ministry will make a technical appraisal of the project and then take the proposal to the Union Cabinet for approval.

Recently, Finance Minister, during her Budget 2023 presentation, allocated record budget for Indian Railways.

Under the same, Maharashtra got the maximum share. The record allocation of Rs 13,539 crore for railways in Maharashtra will have a "very good effect", Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said.

Vaishnaw said that the allocation in the 2023-24 Budget for Maharashtra was 11 times the average allocation between 2009 to 2014.

Saying that the union government was getting good cooperation from the Eknath Shinde-led government, Vaishnaw reiterated the charge that when Uddhav Thackeray was chief minister, the bullet train project did not get any clearances from the state government.