The initial stretch of the first phase of the ambitious 235-km-long Dallirajhara-Rowghat-Jagdalpur Railway line project in Bastar division of Chhattisgarh has been completed, officials stated. In all, 17 km Rail track has been completed in the first phase and Chief Minister Raman Singh has expressed happiness over the achievement.
A successful trial run of a Railway diesel engine was also carried out between Dallirajhara till Gudum village at the speed of 20 km per hour. The Chief Minister congratulated Railway engineers, officers and workers associated with the project. In his message, Singh said that this Rail project will help in economic development of Tribal dominated Bastar region and Balod district as well.
“Upon completion of the project, Narayanpur and Kondagaon of Bastar region will be directly connected through Raipur, Bilaspur Durg and other parts of the country via Rail network. This project will open new doors of economic development for people of Bastar,” the Chief Minister said adding, the project will also supply iron ore to Bhilai Steel Plant from Rowghat.
The 235-km-long Railway line will be constructed in two phases. Work on the first phase of 95 km long track from Dallirajhara to Rowghat is in progress, while for the construction of 140 km long second phase from Rowghat to Jagdalpur, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed between Chhattisgarh government and IRCON International limited which is a company of Union Railway Ministry. The MoU was inked in presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his Dantewada visit on May 9 this year.
The second phase of the project will cost about Rs2,000 crore. For this project the Chhattisgarh government and Central government have formed a joint venture (JV) in which NMDC, SAIl and IRCON are also party. The Chhattisgarh government will have 10 percent equity, NMDC 43 percent equity, SAIl 21 percent and IRCON will have 26 percent equity in the JV.
Notably, the development of two key Rail corridors in mineral-rich Chhattisgarh is now set to expand the Railway line network by 45 per cent in the State, officials stated. The completion of 235-km Dallirajhara-Raoghat-Jagdalpur, East and East-West Rail corridor (300 km) projects will comprise a total of 535 kilometers Railway-line during the next two to four years, they stated.
Chhattisgarh currently has only 1187 route kilometers Railway lines. Notably, the Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP) will be setting up a Pallet Plant near Dallirajhara group of mines after a green signal was received from Union Ministry of Forest and Environment. The project would provide jobs to thousands of unemployed local persons, officials stated.
The plant is being set up with the purpose of iron ore supply to BSP and it will the set up at an estimated cost of Rs1000 crore. The BSP had been working tirelessly to improve the lives of people in Rowghat region of Kanker district, officials stated. Notably iron ore mines in Rowghat have also been allocated for BSP and the development works being carried out here is the part of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
All the 22 villages falling under the Rowghat region are tribal dominated. Here BSP is carrying out developmental works in the field of education, health, sports and culture. large numbers of tribal people are taking benefits of these works. In the Education Sector every year BSP adopts 30 tribal children and provide them free of cost education from class 6thtill 12thin schools located in Dalli Rajhara. The children here are provided with hostel, food, dresses and sports facility free of charge. Currently 131 tribal children are studying here and during the fiscal 2013-14 Rs59 lakhs were spent on them.
likewise every year 20 tribal girls are selected for BSc Nursing course in Bhilai Nursing College. Presently 34 young tribal girls are enrolled in the course and during the financial year 2013-14 Rs30.24 lakh were spent on their education. Further in during 2013-14, Rs12.53 lakh were distributed as scholarship among 120 students living in buffer zone of Rowghat region.
For the past 5 years BSP has been organizing ‘Khel Mela’ in Narayanpur in which about 2,500 students coming from far-flung region of Narayanpur, Antagarh and Abujhmad take part. Recently a football match was also organized in Narayanpur. For conducting sports activities Rs45 lakh were spent during year 2013-14.
Freight train with speed of maximum 100 kms per hour will 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 finalised. 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. This information was given by the Union Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha in written reply to a question in the lok Sabha .