The Marwar Junction–Munabao line connects , on the

Jaipur–Ahmedabad line The Jaipur–Ahmedabad line connects Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan to Ahmedabad, the largest city of Gujarat in India. It is present on Ahmedabad–Delhi main line. Swarna Jayanti Rajdhani Express is the fastest train in this route. History ...

to , the last station in India, near the India–Pakistan border. Both are in the Indian state of

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern s ...

. There is a link to . This line operates under the jurisdiction of

North Western Railway zone The North Western Railway (abbreviated NWR) is one of the 19 railway zones in India. It is headquartered at Jaipur,Rajasthan with 59,075+ employees, 658+ stations and a route length of more than 5761 km across at least some parts of four ...

History

A -wide

metre-gauge Metre-gauge railways are narrow-gauge railways with track gauge of or 1 metre. The metre gauge is used in around of tracks around the world. It was used by European colonial powers, such as the French, British and German Empires. In Europe, la ...

line from Marwar Junction to Pali was built by the Rajputana Railway in 1882. It was extended to Luni in 1884 and Jodhpur in 1885. It formed the first Jodhpur Railway. It later became part of Jodhpur–Bikaner Railway. A metre-gauge line from Luni to Shadipalli, in Sind, was built across the

Thar desert The Thar Desert, also known as the Great Indian Desert, is an arid region in the north-western part of the Subcontinent that covers an area of and forms a natural boundary between India and Pakistan. It is the world's 20th-largest desert, a ...

in 1902 by Jodhpur–Bikaner Railway and the line from Shadipalli to Hyderabad (now in Pakistan) was regauged from 1,676 mm (5 ft 6 in) broad gauge to meter gauge in 1901. The Luni–Barmer–Munabao section was converted to -wide broad gauge in 2004. The Jodhpur–Luni–Marwar Junction section was converted to broad gauge in early 2000s.

Border crossing

According to a 1929 issue of the ''Railway Gazette'', the Sind Mail used to run on this route between Ahmedabad and Hyderabad, Sind. The route was in use with through services between Jodhpur and Karachi till around 1965. On the Pakistan side,

Khokhrapar Khokhropar or Khokhrapar (; ) is a border town situated in Tharparkar District, Sindh, Pakistan. It is located at 25°41 North 70°12 East and has an altitude of . Railway Khokhrapar railway station was established in 1916. Before the independ ...

was the terminus of a branch line from Hyderabad, Sind via Mirpur Khas, 135 km from the border. The rail link across Munabao-Khokhrapar border was restored in 2006. It reduced considerably the travel distance and time for people travelling to and from southern parts of Pakistan, particularly Mohajirs in Sind, and central and southern India. They otherwise would have had to use the longer route via Wagah-Attari. As per the agreement between Indian and Pakistan railways, the

Thar Express The ''Thar Express'' ( hi, थार एक्सप्रेस, ur, , Sindhi: ٿر ايڪسپريس) was an international passenger train that ran between the a suburban area of Jodhpur in the Indian State of Rajasthan and of Karachi in t ...

travels once a week from Karachi during a six-month block, crosses the international border, and the passengers change over to an Indian train at Munabao for their onward journey to Jodhpur. Service on the Munabao-Khokhrapar link of the India–Pakistan border was suspended on 24 August 2006 following incessant rain and water-logging on the Indian side and restored on 17 February 2007. Pakistan Railways have set up a new railway station at

Passenger movement

is the only railway station on this line which is amongst the top hundred booking stations of Indian Railway.

Sheds and workshops

The former metre-gauge workshop at Jodhpur now performs periodic overhauling of broad-gauge passenger coaches. The former metre-gauge diesel shed at Bhagat ki Kothi was converted to broad-gauge shed in the 1990s. It houses 133+ electro-motive diesel locos. It is home to

WDG-4 The Indian locomotive class WDG-4 (EMD GT46MAC) is a freight-hauling diesel-electric locomotive with AC electric transmission designed by General Motors Electro-Motive Diesel in 1997–1998 for Indian Railways, where they are classed as WDG-4. ...

WDP-4 The EMD GT46PAC or WDP4 is a passenger-hauling diesel-electric locomotive with AC electric transmission designed by General Motors Electro-Motive Division and built by both GM-EMD and under license by Banaras Locomotive Works (BLW) of Varanasi ...

WDM-2 The Indian locomotive class WDM-2 is a class of diesel-electric locomotive that was developed in 1962 by American Locomotive Company (ALCO) for Indian Railways. The model name stands for broad gauge (W), Diesel (D), Mixed traffic (M) engine, ...

. WDM-3A and WDG-3A locomotives.

References

External links

Trains at Marwar JunctionTrains at JodhpurTrains at Bhagat Ki KothiTrains at BarmerTrains at Munabao
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marwar Junction-Munabao line 5 ft 6 in gauge railways in India Rail transport in Rajasthan * *