In February 2023, the Ministry of Railways granted in-principle approval to the alignment passing near the GMRT facility at Khodad. He had said the original alignment passing near the GMRT was technically infeasible. Subsequently, representations were submitted to the state government seeking a fresh technical review to determine whether the original alignment could still be implemented by adopting engineering solutions, such as tunnels or other mitigation measures, without compromising the GMRT’s functioning. While the central government’s Railway Ministry is equally negative, the Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is equally positive about this Nashik-Pune High-Speed Railway route. We extend our full support to the Nashik-Shirdi route as well as the direct Ahilyanagar-Pune route,” he added.