mahanadi exp ( 8225/26)was a tri weekly exp (tue,thu,sun) and ran bw bsp and bhopal, and amarkantak (8253/8254)was 4 days a week. in 2005, they permannantly shut down mahanadi and in place ran shivnath exp bw bsp and nagpur. As a substitute bhopal connection they made amarkantak daily. only the stations bw nagpur itarasi section like betul amla were left untouched.
mahandi was not an intercity but an overnight train reached nagpur in the night 2-3 am and reached bhopal 10.30 am.