The first stretch of the Mahanadi Coal Railway Ltd (MCRL), being set up to transport coal from Talcher Coalfields, is expected to be functional in 2022, and ensure faster movement of coal rakes to Paradip and Dhamra Ports, decongest the rail network and reduce the transportation cost considerably.
To ensure efficient coal evacuation, the construction of rail lines started in a phased manner in Talcher Coalfields, namely, MCRL. The Ministry of Coal has identified construction of MCRL Phase I & II project as a high impact project under PM Gatishakti.
The MCRL was incorporated on 31.08.2015 with 64% share of the Mahanadi Coalfield Limited (MCL), 26% of IRCON and 10% of Industrial Development Corporation of Odisha (IDCO)
The alignment of the project traverses through Angul district. Angul and Jarapda are the existing stations of the railway network. Balram is an existing loading station in the Talcher-Balram private siding of MCL.
Under the MCRL’s Phase-I, a 14-km Angul-Balram corridor, expected to be operationalised by this year, will have movement of 25 MT of coal from MCL mines in Talcher Coalfields.
Phase-II, the 54-km Balram-Jarpada-Tentuloi span, is expected to be commissioned by December 2025 to provide connectivity to allocated coal blocks on the southern side and central part of Talcher Coalfields.
Work is progressing rapidly as notification for land acquisition and forestry clearances have been obtained, the Ministry said, adding that this line would cater to evacuation of around 58 MT of coal from CIL and non-CIL coal blocks in Talcher.
The Ministry said shipping routes are much cheaper compared to the rail network and would improve coal availability in the southern and western regions of the country.
The rail corridor would improve faster movement of coal rakes to the Paradip and Dhamra Ports thereby decongesting the rail network and this would also reduce transportation cost considerably.
The Talcher Coalï¬elds of MCL is one of the largest with about 52 BT of coal resources, which is 15% of the total prognosticate coal resources in the country. Of the available resources in the Talcher Coalfield, more than 63% (33 BT) lies within 300-metre depth, presenting a significant potential for opencast mining, the Coal Ministry said in a statement on Monday.
The Talcher Coalfields produced over 95 MT coal during FY22 and is likely to produce about 200 MT in 2024-25 and about 300 by FY 2030 from the MCL and allocated coal blocks, it said.