The Satpura Railway was a narrow-gauge railway in the states of

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...

and Maharashtra in central India.

History

After the

Great Famine of 1876–78 Great may refer to: Descriptions or measurements * Great, a relative measurement in physical space, see Size * Greatness, being divine, majestic, superior, majestic, or transcendent People * List of people known as "the Great" *Artel Great (born ...

in central India, the

Bengal Nagpur Railway The Bengal Nagpur Railway was one of the companies which pioneered development of the railways in eastern and central India. It was succeeded first by Eastern Railway and subsequently by South Eastern Railway. History The opening of the ...

began planning to open a low-cost railway track that would unite the region, allowing both access to the agricultural and mineral resources of the region, further safeguarding the inhabitants should another famine arise. Nainpur was the focal point of the network and was even bestowed with the prestige of being a divisional headquarters for some time. The lines came up in the early years of the 20th century. The first portion of the

Gondia Gondia (also spelled Gondiya) is a city and municipal council in the Indian state of Maharashtra which serves the administrative headquarters of the eponymous administrative district. Gondia is also known as ''Rice City'' due to the abundance ...

– Nainpur line was opened on 13 April 1903, Nainpur and Chhindwara were connected in 1904 and

Jabalpur Jabalpur is a city situated on the banks of Narmada River in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India. According to the 2011 census, it is the third-largest urban agglomeration in Madhya Pradesh and the country's 38th-largest urban agglomeration. J ...

in 1905. The Chhindwara – Pench Coalfield line came up in 1906 to 07 and the Nainpur– Mandla Fort line in 1909. The extensive network of gauge tracks measured just over 1,000 km.

Conversion to broad gauge

The Satpura Railway is fully made into broad gauge. The alignment follows the old

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge narrower than standard . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curves, smaller structu ...

line in most of the route excepting the hilly regions. Amla - Chhindwara - Nainpur - Mandla Fort section fully follows the old

alignment. But

- Nainpur - Balaghat -

section has different alignment in some parts. The section between

and Balaghat was converted to broad gauge in 2005 and 2006 connecting Balaghat to India's national network for the first time. Work was completed on converting the Balaghat – Nainpur -

section to broad gauge in 2021. The narrow-gauge trains running between

and Balaghat were stopped in October 2015 and the track was closed for gauge conversion. The broad-gauge track from

to Ghunsore railway station was opened in September 2017 and the track from Ghunsore to Nainpur opened in 2018. The last work of between Nainpur to Balaghat was expected to be operational in mid-2020, but due to

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

it was delayed, while also converted into an electrified line for increased average speed. After that, it was started on 8 March 2021. The long Chhindwara - Nainpur - Mandla Fort section is nearing completion with crs inspection happened on 24th of february 2023. Nainpur - Mandla Fort section being operational since 15 March 2021.

References

{{Railways in Central India 2 ft 6 in gauge railways in India Defunct railway companies of India Rail transport in Madhya Pradesh Transport in Jabalpur