Rs 422 Crores have been allocated to broad gauge conversion of the Udaipur Ahmedabad stretch in this year’s budget. It may be noted that this was the first year where the railway budget was not presented separately but as part of the Union budget.

Conversion of the line to broad gauge was approved in 2008 and the cost was initially estimated at Rs 825 Crores. The present estimate has gone up to Rs 1500 Crores. Allocation of Rs 125 Crores was done during the UPA regime from 2009-2014. Current Government gave additional grants of Rs 150 Crores and Rs 650 Crores in 2015 and 2016 budget. A total of Rs 1347 Crores has been allotted so far in the budget. Railway expects completion of the project by 2018.

Current status of project:

As per the initial plan, a 270km line was to be laid between Udaipur to Ahmedabad passing through Himmatnagar. This was amended in 2011 and it was decided to take a by-pass between Shyamla ji and Modasa. This would help in cutting short distances of trains that need to go down south from Udaipur but do not necessarily have to go to Ahmedabad. This bypass increased the length by 30km and the revised length of line is now 300kms.