What does it take to build a link line (not more than 1 km in length) connecting Ahmednagar to Manmad track with Aurangabad to Manmad track between Yeola and Ankai? By doing this the travel time between Ahmednagar to Aurangabad will reduce by a whole 1 hour as the train can switch between the 2 lines without needing to go to Ankai or Manmad and without any reversal. Similar connecting line can be constructed at Daund Junction as well to enable trains from Pune to go to Ahmednagar directly without undergoing a reversal exercise at Daund Junction and thereby saving half hour.
Now, whats the advantage? Trains from Pune to Delhi / UP / Bihar / Howrah can save half hour by...
more... not going to Daund (where anyways not many ppl board). The big one is that Pune to Aurangabad can be covered in just 5 to 5.5 hours (same as bus journey time). The load between the 2 cities in sufficient enough to fill 2 intercity trains, one starting in the morning and one starting in evening from Pune to Aurangabad, and much much cheaper than MSRTC bus fares.
We are looking at not more than 2 kms of railway lines for this. What does it take from railways part to build them?