nashik a study report presented to railway minister suresh prabhu states that a new route between pune and kolhapur based on the principles of konkan railway could cut travel time to less than four hours the report prepared by rail parishad a nongovernmental organization from nashik states that instead of laying additional track on the existing rail line between the two western maharashtra cities a new route could drastically bring down the journey duration from the current time of 840 hours bipin gandhi president of rail parishad said the railways need to shed the mentality of just carrying out routine works and plan measures to cut down the travel costs and time this is the reason we presented a study report to railway minister suresh prabhu and the pmo in december 2015 and january 2016 we have urged the railway minister to devise other route through the interiors so that the train speed can reach up to 100 kmph as against the current average speed of 35 kmph gandhi said madhukar sonawane retired deputy chief engineer from railways said the strain often travel at a gradient of 1100 which means after crossing 100 metres it will rise by one metre when travelling between pune and kolhapur this is a very steep gradient the curvatures of up to 6 degrees mean that the train has to take sharp turns these impact the wheels as well as the tracks he added that ideally the gradient should not be less than 1 150 meaning it will take more distance to rise or descend one metre in height the curvatures should also be up to 25 degrees at the most this can be easily achieved if the principle adopted in konkan railway is followed there the train runs at a similar height and thus the need of climbing up or down is cut down this was onetime cost that konkan railway corporation incurred and now it is reaping benefits it is the similar principle in the four lane roads he said sonawane added this could certainly be a good gift to the region in the 125th year of the kolhapur railway station constructed by chhatrapati shahu maharaj in 1888 there was less of technology available then now if we can spend on bullet trains why cant we have faster connectivity between pune and bangalore via kolhapur on the proposed route sonawane said the ngo had presented an idea to the railway ministry to cut down the travel time land acquisition would be required in some areas while at some places the tracks could be adjacent to current tracks he said adding that the land could be easily available in the interiors because the area has not seen much urbanization gandhi added that it would help in cutting down the distance between pune and bangalore which in turn would boost mass transit for passengers as well as freight