Central public sector Mining, Steel and Railway infrastructure heavyweights including Chhattisgarh Mineral Development Corporation (CMDC) on Wednesday signed a Shareholders' agreement for ensuring successful implementation of the Jagdalpur-Rowghat Railway line project in Chhattisgarh at Chief Minister Raman Singh’s office at his residence here.
The agreement was signed between representatives of NMDC, IRCON, SAIl and CMDC, officials stated.
This signing of the agreement has now opened the way for incorporation of the company-- an SPV formed under the name of Chhattisgarh South Railway Pvt ltd. The project will be completed at a cost of nearly Rs 2000 crore.
On the occasion, the Chief Minister said that this entire railway project of 235 kms from Dallirajhara-Rowghat to Jagdalpur will prove beneficial for economic development of tribal-populated Bastar region of Chhattisgarh.
The project will connect Bastar directly with National Railway network. The equity of various JV partners is as follows-- NMDC (National Mineral Development Corporation)-43 per cent, IRCON- 26 per cent, SAIl (Steel Authority of India ltd)- 21% and CMDC (Chhattisgarh Mineral Development Corporation) 10 per cent.
It is noteworthy that during Chhattisgarh visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Government of Chhattisgarh, NMDC, SAIl, and IRCON had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on May 9, 2015 at a programme organized at Dantewada in Bastar in presence of the Prime Minister and Chhattisgarh Chief Minister .
The MoU was signed for development of new 142-km-long rail line from Jagdalpur to Rowghat in Bastar through a project-specific joint venture company to be named as Chhattisgarh South Railway Private limited.
The Chhattisgarh Government has nominated Chhattisgarh Mineral Development Company to participate in the Joint Venture company on its behalf. The total length of the railway line project is 140.06 kms.
SAIl, IRCON, CMDC and Ministry of Railways will each have one Director in the company whereas NMDC will have two Directors and the Chairman of the company will be a nominee of NMDC.
The entire rail line from Dallirajhara to Jagdalpur via Rowghat will be of nearly 235 kms. Presently, construction of rail line from Dallirajhara to Rowghat is in progress.
In the second phase railway project of 142 km rail line from Rowghat to Jagdalpur will be constructed at the cost of Rs 2000 crores. In this route, total 32 major bridges and 172 minor bridges will be constructed. The total number of stations will be 12 with 7 crossing stations. Roughly 876 hectares of land will have to be acquired for the project.
In the agreement signing ceremony held here, Chief Minister Raman Singh directed officials concerned to ensure that all the preparations related to the project are completed soon.
Chhattisgarh Government's Mineral Resource Department Secretary Subodh Kumar Singh informed in the meeting that under this project, target has been set to complete survey work of Jagdalpur-Kondagaon-Narayanpur by the month of March and of Narayanpur-Raoghat Road by the month of May .
Presently, Survey work, feasibility report and detailed project report (DPR) is under preparation.
On the occasion, Executive Director of NMDC Alok Kumar Mehta, Executive Director of IRCON Sanjay Rastogi, Director of SAIl G Vishwakarma, Director of Directorate of Geology and Mining Reena Babasaheb Kangale and Senior Officers of BSP (Bhilai Steel Plant) were also present.
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-Rowghat-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 of Railway lines.
Notably, Chhattisgarh is also set to earn estimated revenue of Rs 51,596 crore from its five mines auctioned among 29 in the country under the provisions of Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act, 2015 during the mining lease period.
The specified end-users of the mines are in the non-regulated sector. The mines are Chotia, Gare Palma IV-4, Gare Palma IV-5, Gare Palma IV-7, Gare-Palma Sector-IV/8.
So far 29 coal mines have been auctioned under the provisions of Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act, 2015 and the Rules made thereunder.