Shirdi

Shirdi (also known as Sainagar) is a city and pilgrimage site in the Indian state of Maharashtra. Shirdi is home to 19th century Indian God Shri Sai Baba's samadhi mandir. It is located in the Rahata taluka of Ahmednagar District. It is accessible via the Ahmednagar–Malegaon State Highway No.10, approximately 83 km from Ahmednagar and 15 km from Kopargaon. It is located 185 km east of the Ahmednagar–Manmad road. Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust is located in Shirdi.

Every day, over 60,000 tourists and devotees from all faiths and religions throng to the temple, and this number increases during festive seasons. The temple opens at 4:45 am Other places related to the life of Shri Sai in Shirdi include Dwarkamai Mandir, Chavadi and Gurusthan.

Dwarkamai Mandir, where Baba lived, with a temple inside, is the only one of its kind and importance in India. Another interesting aspect of the dwarkamai mandir is that the Dhuni, or holy fire that Sai Baba lit here has been always kept burning to this day.There is a Neem tree beside the Samadhi Mandir and There is a Gurusthan under the Neem tree ,where according to Baba, the original samadhi of his own guru is located and Where Baba was found during his Balyog or Yuva avastha. This place is considered to be a very important because of this reason.

Another interesting fact of this Neem Tree is that the Leaves of this Neem Tree is Sweet, because of this reason the devotes consider to be miracles by Baba. .

Demographics
As of the 2011 India census, the population of Shirdi stood at 36,004. Males constitute 53% of the population and females 47%. Shirdi has an average literacy rate of 70%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 76%, and female literacy is 62%. In Shirdi, 15% of the population is under six years of age.

Train
The Sainagar Shirdi Railway station became operational in March 2009. As of 2011, there are trains from Chennai, Mumbai, Visakhapatnam, Kakinada, Vijayawada, Hyderabad, Mysore and other cities/states that have Shirdi railway station as their terminal stop.

Air
Shirdi Airport was inaugurated by the President of India, Ramnath Kovind, on 1 October 2017. There are major destinations from Shirdi airport, viz. the airports of Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai and Mumbai. The airport is located at Kakadi in Kopargaon tahsil area, 14 km south-west of Shirdi. The construction, according to the original plans, was completed in February 2016, and the first trial flight landed on 2 March 2016. There are plans to lengthen the runway from 2,200 metres to 3,200 metres. The target completion date is 2017 or 2018.

The nearest major airports are at Aurangabad and Pune, 115 km and 186 km respectively from Shirdi.

By car
Shirdi is accessible via the Ahmednagar-Manmad State Highway No.10, approximately 83 km from Ahmednagar and 15 km from Kopargaon. It is approximately 240 km from Mumbai on the Eastern Express Highway.