Mumbai: The inauguration of Kurduwadi-Latur broad-gauge railway line was a dream come true for chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh.

He described the event as a very happy moment in his life. Recalling how on September 4,1981, when he was elected for the first time as MLA, he had demanded for an expansion of the railway line in his hometown Latur.

From a young and dynamic MLA he became a minister and then the chief minister. And every year ahead of the union railway budget he would forward a proposal to the Centre pleading for the project. But it took 27 years for his project to materialise.

The Centre for two decades kept on saying that the project was not feasible. A dejected Deshmukh had once said he was surprised to see the modernisation of Maharaja trains in Jaipur. "These are going to serve only the upper class. Our demand to convert the narrow-gauge into broad-gauge would benefit people but is dismissed for paucity of funds."
Source : DNA