Viramgam MLA Hardik Patel on Monday wrote to Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw requesting a broad gauge railway line between Viramgam in Ahmedabad and Radhanpur in Patan, via Mandal and Shankheswar (a Jain pilgrimage centre), to enable, what he said was Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of ‘Viksit Bharat 2047’. Patel’s letter stated that the “long pending public demand” of setting up this approximately 100 km stretch of broad gauge railway would “bridge an important connectivity gap in north-west Gujarat while integrating industrial, agricultural and religious centres with the national railway network”. He requested that the railway ministry, “Sanction a Preliminary Engineering-cum-Traffic Survey (PETS) for the proposed railway line; include the project in the forthcoming Railway Budget and infrastructure planning; and initiate necessary technical and financial feasibility studies at the earliest.”