Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu laid the foundation stone of a railway station that is proposed to come up at Kalbani village in Ratnagiri district, an official statement said here today.
The event took place at Kalbani village yesterday.
"This proposed Kalbani station is situated between Khed and Diwankhawati stations of Konkan Railway in Ratnagiri district and will further reduce the distance between stations from present 17.7 kms to 10.28 km from Khed and 7.38 kms from Diwankhawati," Siddheshwar Telugu, chief spokesperson of Konkan Railway, said.
This station will be constructed at a cost of Rs 9.55 crore and once it is commissioned, it would serve Kalbani Budruk, Kalbani Khurd, Udale, Chinchavli and Kartel villages.
At present the commuters at Kalbani are dependent either on Khed or Diwankhawati railway stations for their conveyance to Mumbai, Goa, etc for which they have to travel a lot by road using both taxi or bus as there is no direct connectivity.
"With the construction of this station, it will help in the development of adjacent areas and will improve communication as well as connectivity among the adjoining villages, which will prove to be a great boon to the people residing in and around Kalbani," Telugu further said.
"This will also improve operations and throughput on Konkan Railway as the Block Section comprising of 17.7 Kms between Khed and Diwankhawati will be split into two parts," he said.
"The proposed station will be provided with various passenger amenities such as platforms, waiting hall, current ticket booking counter and covered platform shelter," Telugu said.
This station would de-congest traffic by providing
direct connectivity to commercial hubs in east including various firms.
Ram Mandir station with four platforms is located at 25.51 kms from Churchgate station.
Local people are elated over the new station.
"I was seeing this station being constructed since last 7 to 8 years and finally it started giving its services to local people. This is really a big relief," said local resident Chhaya Tiwari.
