The Chhattisgarh Government is in the process of upgrading a double lane main road at light Industrial Area Bhilai in Durg district at a cost of Rs5.66 crore, officials stated. The project had been taken up under Central Government’s ‘Assistance to States for Development of Export Infrastructure and Allied Activities’ (ASIDE) scheme. The project will further bolster export oriented movement of goods from the State, they stated.
The State Government is already in the process of facilitating an approach road connectivity for Inland Container Depot (ICD) at Kapa in Raipur to Raipur- Bilaspur Highway (NH-200), officials stated. The project had also been taken up under Central government’s ASIDE scheme. The State Government is already in the process of upgrading infrastructural facility to further accelerate Export-Import ( EXIM) activity from its Inland Container Depot (ICD) located at Kapa in Raipur.
The project cost of the proposed works within the ICD campus is Rs3.10 crore, officials stated. The project had also been undertaken under ‘Developing Export Infrastructure & Allied Activities’ (ASIDE) scheme of the Central Government. Early this year, Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu had also put forward a proposal that a ‘Cargo Hub’ should be developed in Naya Raipur with a Container Depot in Chhattisgarh.
He said that his Ministry will bear the entire development cost if the Chhattisgarh Government agrees to provide land for the proposed hub. To this, Chief Minister Raman Singh who had met the Union Railway Minister in New Delhi had assured the latter that his Government will provide land for the project. It may also be recalled that in November last year, the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation last year had approved construction of domestic cargo terminal in 24 airports of the country, including one at Raipur.
Significantly, in 2014-15, Raipur Railway division coming under South East Central Railway (SECR) loaded 31.85 million tonnes of freight which is highest since the formation of its Raipur division. During the past five years, Railway division has earned Rs11.78 crore from non conventional sources, officials said. A proposed Freight train with speed of maximum 100 kms per hour will also pass through Chhattisgarh in the East-West Corridor (Kolkata-Mumbai).
The train will traverse through the States of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra as the Ministry of Railways has sanctioned implementation of Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) and Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) with freight train speeds of maximum 100 Kmph. Alignment for both WDFC & EDFC has been finalized. WDFC starts from Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), Mumbai and passes through the States of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, and terminate at Dadri in Uttar Pradesh. The total length of the Western DFC is about 1500 Kms.