Mumbai, Oct 17 (IANS) Barely a fortnight after getting a new airport, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh's home district Latur will now be directly connected to Mumbai with a new broad guage railway line, officials said Friday.
Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde is set to flag off the inaugural Latur-Mumbai service at Latur station Sunday morning, an official said here.
The daily service, apart from boosting the development of the state's backward Marathwada region, will result in reduction in travel time between Mumbai and Hyderabad.
The project is considered a 'dream come true' for Deshmukh, who had first mooted the proposal in the state legislature Sep 4, 1981.
'He was a newly-elected first-time legislator, it was his maiden speech in the House and this was the first issue he had raised,' the official said.
An announcement by the Central Railway Friday evening said the new Latur Express would leave Mumbai daily at 8.55 p.m. and arrive at Latur the next day at 7.10 a.m. On the return sector, it would depart from Latur at 9.35 p.m., arriving in Mumbai the following day at 7.55 a.m.
On both the sectors, the service has scheduled halts at Dadar, Kalyan, Karjat, Lonavala, Pune, Daund, Kurduwadi, Barsi and Osmanabad.
The project has been possible by an extension of the Kurduwadi-Latur section of the railway line and converting it to broad guage, the announcement said.
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