Seven years after announcement of setting up a common railway corridor for the Talcher Coalfields, the project is struggling to take off, thanks to lackadaisical attitude of the officials.
The Rs 5,000-crore project is still hanging fire, which was announced in 2012 for the coal bearing areas of Angul-Talcher-Chhendipada, covering 85 km.
Senior officials of Ministry of Coal are worried over such inordinate delay as the railway coal corridor was to cater 15 Million Ton Per Annum (MTPA) coal from the Talcher coal blocks. At least 10 coal blocks in Talcher area like Chhendipada, Baitarani West, Machhkund, Utkal Coal Blocks, New Patrapada, Nuagaon, Telisahi Radhikapur are to be linked with the rail
corridor. A recent review by the senior officials of Government of India reveals that progress of the railway corridor has been unsatisfactory.
While it was announced in 2012, a Joint Venture Company was formed in 2015 taking the Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL), the Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation of Odisha(IDCO), the Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) and the Indian Railway Construction Corporation (IRCON) to develop the railway corridor.
The Ministry of Railways, the Ministry of Coal and the Government of Odisha joined hands to develop the railway corridor keeping in view the interest of the State and its industrialization in view.
At least 57 major industries like Nalco, IMFA, Tata Steel and others were to be benefitted from the railway corridor.
Steel, power, and other sector industries were to be benefitted from corridor.
5,000 acres of land was to be acquired for the purpose, which was an ambitious project and it was planned that the rail corridor was to be flanked by the National Highways 23 and 42 along with a State Highway.
However, lackadaisical approach of the officers involved in the project is coming as a bottleneck.
Acquisition of land is posing a problem and coordination is lacking between the senior officials and district authorities.
And there is lack of coordination between MCL and State Government officials, resulting in inordinate delay in the progress of the ambitious project. It was expected that the railway corridor will handle coal traffic of over 100 MTPA in future and it has huge scope for development. Multiple entry and exit points were planned for smooth movement of coal. Flyovers were also planned to avoid cross movement in junction stations.
Most modern facilities were planned for the railway corridor; however things are not happening as per the plan, rued a senior official.
In order to sort out the issues, the Ministry of Coal has approached the State Government to take up the pending issues so that the railway corridor can take off in a time bound manner. As there is inordinate delay in implementation, project cost is rising high for which authorities are in a worried state, said sources.