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 kms railway-line during the next two to four years, they stated. Chhattisgarh currently has only 1,187 route km railway lines.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed for 235-km Dallirajhara-Raoghat-Jagdalpur broad-gauge rail project was signed on December 11, 2007. Construction of 95-km from Dallirajhara to Raoghat is underway in the first phase. In the second phase, an MoU has been signed for 140-km railway line from Raoghat to Jagdalpur. The estimated cost of this project at that time was Rs640 crore. This project has 57 per cent, 21 per cent, 12 per cent and 10 per cent share of Railways, SAIl, State Government and NMDC ltd respectively.
But due to lack of funds, the second phase of this project could not be initiated. Chhattisgarh has given proposal to the Railway Ministry for completing the second phase construction of this project through Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), which has been approved by the Central Government.
In the joint undertaking company, SPV is to be constituted for Rail-line Project, equity of Chhattisgarh Government is 10 per cent, NMDC ltd 43 per cent, SAIl 21 per cent and IRCON International limited at 26 per cent.
The State Government’s contribution would be in form of government land allocated to joint undertaking. In case the cost of land is less than 10 per cent, the additional equity would be paid in cash. The expenditure on acquisition of private land and payment of compensation would be borne by the join undertaking company. The estimated cost of this proposed project would be Rs 2,000 crore.
On completion of this project, Narayanpur and Kondagaon districts of Bastar Revenue Division would be linked to Raipur, Bilaspur, Durg and other cities of State as well as to various parts of the country through Railway line. Consequently, residents of these districts will get whole lot of new opportunities of progress in the fields of education, health, business etc. This will also facilitate the iron-ore transportation. Target time for completion of this project is four years.
Moreover, 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 and 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 1,500 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 in March this year.
The Eastern Freight Corridor, starts from Sahnewal near ludhiana in Punjab and passes through the States of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and terminate at Dankuni in West Bengal, total length being 1856 Kms.
This apart, the North-South Corridor (Delhi-Chennai) will traverse through the States of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu while East Coast Corridor (Kharagpur-Vijaywada) will traverse through the States of West Bengal, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.
The Southern Corridor (Chennai-Goa will traverse through the States of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Goa. As regards land acquisition, award of 20 F (Compensation Award) under Railway Amendment Act 2008, for 80 per cent of land has been completed.
Civil Contracts of about 1,100 km and System Contract of 945 km have been finalised. Civil works are progressing in Khurja-Kanpur, Mughalsarai-Sonnagar Section of EDFC and in Rewari-Palanpur Section of WDFC.
Excluding Sonnagar —Dankuni Section of EDFC, WDFC and EDFC is targetted to be completed in December 2019. Project implementation schedule, timelines have been drawn up and are being monitored on regular basis.