Navapur
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Railway station
As in 2024
Kamal Saiyed , May 12, 2024: The Indian Express
The total length of Navapur railway station is 800 metres, 300 metres of which are in Maharashtra and 500 metres in Gujarat.
The man uses the power socket at the station to charge his battery and phone. A family of five from Bharuch arrives at the station, not to catch a train but to take pictures near the famous ‘selfie point’: A wooden bench, half of which is in Maharashtra and the other half in Gujarat.
The unique feature of this railway station is a yellow line that dates back to May 1, 1960, running across it and cutting it into two parts, when Gujarat was carved out from Maharashtra and the Bombay Presidency as a separate state and a part of this redrawing of the border, ran through the Navapur railway station.
Located about 100 km from Surat, Navapur railway station barely sees 24 train stoppages (goods and passenger trains) in a day, half the coaches stopping on the Gujarat side and half on the Maharashtra side, Navapur station master D L Meena told The Indian Express.
If you use the passenger waiting room on the Gujarat side, you would have to fetch your cup of tea from the far side of the platform on the Maharashtra side, which is in the Nandurbar district. The Gujarat side is in the Tapi district.
The services on the station are divided so that the station superintendent’s office is in Gujarat. The yellow line runs through the platform and stairway to the railway colony adjoining the station where the Gujarat sides have power meters installed by Dakshin Gujarat Vij Company Ltd (DGVCL), and the other side has Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) as the power distributor. A railway employee’s family told The Indian Express that Gujarat’s power cost is cheaper than that of Maharashtra.
Navapur railway sources said the total length of Navapur railway station is 800 metres, of which 300 metres are in Maharashtra and 500 metres are in Gujarat. The instructions displayed at the railway station are in four languages: English, Hindi, Marathi, and Gujarati.
The border of the two states divides the railway colony house No. 27 TB into two—one window falls in Maharashtra, while another window and door fall in Gujarat, a resident told The Indian Express.
Station master Meena said, “In Maharashtra territory, the railway offices are RPF (Railway Protection Force) outpost, ticket booking centre, station superintendent office, railway garden, railway crossing, and 88 Railway quarters. Similarly, the Gujarat territory includes a station master office, waiting room, power panel room, lavatories, water tank, bridge, and 15 railway quarters.”
The Government Railway Police (GRP) offices are in Nandurbar and Vyara in Tapi. There is a mutual understanding between the officials, and they see the border and later take future actions, said an official in GRP at Vyara. Sources said that the Nandurbar district panchayat runs a Gujarati government school for Classes 1 to 5 at a railway colony in Maharashtra territory.
Apart from the railway colony, the nearby resident areas also have a mixed population of Marathi and Gujarati tribals. Residents in Gujarat territory who have a voter ID card from Gujarat vote in the elections conducted in Gujarat, while residents of Maharashtra vote in Maharashtra state local, state, and Lok Sabha elections.
On condition of anonymity, the railway officer’s family said they wanted to stay in the Gujarat railway quarters because they could pay cheap bills. Power disruptions occur more in Maharashtra territory and less in Gujarat. “We have applied for a change of residential quarter from Maharashtra territory to Gujarat territory,” they said.
Sources said that most of the people staying on either side of Navapur railway station are tribals and have internal connections with each other. There are tribals of Navapur who had shifted to Vyara in Tapi, and some of the Gujarati traders also own shops in the market area in Navapur and do business. The state transport buses on both sides carry passengers to other territories.
Navapur has its own municipality, and the authorities work as per the geographical map. The town of Navapur has industries related to the agro base, like sugar cooperative factories and food processing facilities. The people of the Surat and Tapi districts own many poultry farms in Navapur. The chickens are sold in South Gujarat and also locally in Navapur and Nandurbar. Sources said that APMC in Navapur supplies vegetables and fruits to the Surat Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) and other parts of Gujarat.
Navapur has schools that offer education in Gujarati, Marathi, Hindi, and English. However, the medium of instruction for graduation and post-graduation courses is only in Marathi and English.
