station. A new railway route from Miraj via Kolhapur until Vaibhavwadi has been confirmed, which will connect Kolhapur and many other towns with to the Western coastal region of India. Road Kolhapur is located on National Highway 4 and National Highway 204. Kolhapur is 55 km from Sangli City and 200 km from Pune. The city has three state transport bus stands: Central Bus Stand (CBS), Rankala Bus Stand and Sambhajinagar Bus Stand. Kolhapur Municipal Transport (KMT) provides local bus services. The CBS of Kolhapur is the busiest bus stand in western Maharashtra with more than 50,000 commutators a day. Airport Kolhapur's domestic airport, also known as Chhatrapati Rajaram Maharaj Airport, is located south east of the city at Ujalaiwadi. Indigo operates daily flights to Hyderabad Airport and Tirupati Airport as well as three times a week to Ahmedabad Airport. Star Air operates flights three times in a week to Mumbai Airport. Expansion of runway and construction of and airport terminal building is in progress. The nearest international airports to Kolhapur are Pune International Airport () and Goa International Airport (). Education Kolhapur has educational institutions for engineering, medicine, management studies, pharmaceutical sciences and agriculture. Shivaji University is located in Kolhapur city. There are international schools and a pre-IAS training centre. The pre-IAS training centre is in Rajaram college campus. The admissions to pre-IAS centre are allotted by merit through an entrance exam. The city attracts students form all over India and Africa. Languages The Marathi language spoken in Kolhapur has some distinctive adaptations. Women for example will use the masculine gender for verbs. Some syllables in names are uniquely shortened to utter them faster. For example, शंकर becomes शंक्रोबा. Some phrases are unique to the local dialect, and especially popular among the youth, such as 'काय भावा?', 'नाद नाही करायचा', 'काटा कीर्रर्र', 'खटक्यावर बोट', and 'जाग्यावर पल्टी'. Notable people Shahu of Kolhapur - Maharaja and a social reformer. Tarabai - Maratha queen and warrior. Ramchandra Pant Amatya - One of the Ashta Pradhans of Shivaji. Santaji Ghorpade - Maratha warrior and Sarsenapati. Bhalji Pendharkar - Award Winning director. Nanda - Film actress. Sudhir Phadke - Singer and composer. Suresh Wadkar - Playback singer. Jayant Narlikar - Indian astrophysicist. V. Shantaram - Indian filmmaker, film producer and actor. Shivaji Sawant - Indian novelist. Ranjit Desai - Popular Marathi writer. Master Vinayak - Indian actor and film director. Suniti Ashok Deshpande