Doubling of rail track in Kirandul-Jagdalpur section of East Coast Railways will start soon with the cooperation of the National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC), Chief Mechanical Engineer of Railway, Bhubaneshwar Zone, told The Pioneer at Jagdalpur on Friday.
According to CME, Premchand, Bastar has immense tourist potential and as such better rail link and more train services are required to tap this potential. Jagdalpur, located on KK (Kirandul-Kottavalasa) line, is important from both passenger as well as goods transportation point of view as most of the iron ores excavated by NMDC are sent to Vishakhapatnam from Kirandul via Jagdalpur.
Since KK line passes through very densely forested and hilly areas with single line track, railways have great problem in operating trains on this route amid danger of mishap looming always large. As the railways are more concerned about safety, plying more trains on this route is difficult without doubling of the track.
On the Kirandul-Jagdalpur section, about a dozen goods trains run daily transporting iron ore and operation of these trains are often disturbed by Maoists, NMDC, too, is eager to doubling of the track. Therefore, work on doubling of track between Kirandul and Jagdalpur will begin soon, Premchand added. Notably, 124 km Jagdalpur-Kirandul section of ECoR is prone to Naxal violence as Maoists often damage the track stalling movement of both passenger and goods train. During every bandh day, the railways suffer average Rs 25 lakh loss besides inconvenience to passengers.
Talking on safety issue, Premchand said providing security to rail traffic was responsibility of the respective state government as Railway Protection Force (RPF) has no power to control law and order. He favoured solution to this problem by soliciting cooperation of local people.