Pune (Maharashtra) [India], May 3 (ANI): Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Saturday announced the launch of a new rail service connecting Pune and Chennai to Western Rajasthan, fulfilling a decades-old demand, and revealed a master plan to double Pune's railway capacity.

The Union Minister termed the launch of the new train service connecting Western Rajasthan via Pune and Chennai as a 'big success.'

'Today, we made a big success -- the long-pending demand to connect Western Rajasthan. In this regard, we have started a new rail service from Pune and Chennai,' Vaishnaw said during his visit to Pune.

He credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi for delivering on the 30-40-year-old demand, thanking him for the initiative.

In a major infrastructure boost for the region, Vaishnaw also announced that a comprehensive master plan to double the capacity of Pune's railway operations has been finalised.

'The plan to double the capacity of Pune, which we had promised during the elections, is now ready. As a result, the number of trains running from Pune will be doubled,' he said.

On Friday, Ashwini Vaishnaw inspected the construction progress of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train station located at the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) in Mumbai.

He stated that work on the site is moving ahead at a rapid pace following the handover of land by the Maharashtra government.

'The work on Mumbai's Bandra Kurla Complex station is progressing very rapidly. If you look at the work, the construction of B3, which is our lowest basement level, is moving ahead quickly,' Vaishnaw said during the inspection.

He further noted that structural reinforcement has already been completed. 'The work to strengthen the site's walls has been completed. Now, the construction of the station walls has begun,' he added.

Providing details of the station design, Vaishnaw said, 'This station will be a multi-storey building, and it will have three basement levels - B3, B2, and B1. Vehicles will be parked in B3, operational work will take place in B2, and passengers will enter the station from B1 and the ground level.'He also highlighted progress on the tunnel works associated with the high-speed rail project. 'Alongside this, the tunneling work is also advancing at a fast pace, and as soon as the land from the Maharashtra government was received, the speed of the work increased significantly,' he said.

Approximately 76 per cent of the excavation work has been completed on the Mumbai bullet train station located at BKC, which is the only underground station on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail Corridor.

According to a release, 14.2 lakh cubic metres of the excavation work has been completed. 18.7 lakh cubic metres of earthwork must be excavated from this site.

Three batching plants of 120 cum/hr capacity are functional at site. Batching plants are provided with an ice plant and a chiller plant that help control concrete temperature.

The site is provided with a modern concrete lab, with facilities like a Water Permeability Test, a Rapid Chloride Penetration Test, etc. All concrete tests are conducted at the site, and samples are intermittently sent to a reputed lab. (ANI)