Move to help increase CIL output by 300 million tones
India is set to commission the first of its three ambitious inter-state rail corridor projects dedicated to coal evacuation in the Naxal-affected Jharsuguda district in Odisha in a little over a year. The project is part of a bigger, though much-delayed plan to invest Rs 7,000 crore in the three rail lines to free 300 million tonnes (mt) of coal supply, locked due to logistical constraints across three states. With lack of transport infrastructure hampering coal production, the Government aims to speed up construction of three critical railway lines – namely Tori-Shivpur-Kathautia (situated in North Karanpura, Jharkhand), Jharsuguda-Barpalli-Sardega (in IB Valley, Odisha) and Bhupdeopur-Raigarh-Mand (in Chhattisgarh). These lines, which are considered critical for improving connectivity of Coal India Ltd’s (CIL) mines, are to be completed by December 2017. The construction of the three railway lines will help bring nearly 100 million tonnes of incremental traffic and facilitate faster transportation of coal to power plants. Highly placed sources said that the Coal Ministry also aims to buy 200 to 250 additional rakes in the next three years to expedite transportation of coal produced by CIL, which in turn will help improve supply of dry fuel to thermal plants. Currently there are 200-odd rakes which are carrying coal. By the time the three rail lines come up, the number of rakes, too, would be doubled, which will help add another 200 million tonnes to 300 million tonnes of coal output for CIL. The Coal Ministry is likely to place orders for purchasing 34 rakes by March 2015 by CIL.
The three rail corridor projects, entailing about Rs 7,500 crore expenditure, are currently under different phases of development. As per original plans, the rail project for North Karanpura coalfield, work on which had started in 1999, was scheduled for completion in 2005 but only half of it is likely to be completed by March, 2015. Likewise, the IB Valley project in Odisha, which too started long back, should have been completed in 2009. Coal India (CIL) has already provided over Rs 300 crore to Railways for the projects. The Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) has instructed the coal and the rail ministries to work with the Naveen Patnaik-led government to commission the Ib Valley corridor in Odisha first, by December 2014. “Both, land and forest clearances are underway for the Jharsuguda-Barpalli line. A special team under the Project Monitoring Group of the CCI is monitoring the lines now,” a senior official said. The 53-km corridor will help state-owned miner Coal India Ltd (CIL) scale production potential by an additional 132 mt a year. Only 15 per cent of this is utilised in the absence of evacuation facility. The total cost of setting up the three projects has escalated from Rs 2,000 crore when they were initially planned before the beginning of the Eleventh Plan period in 2007 to Rs 7,000 crore now. The official added that the next of the three corridors to become a reality would be the 93-km Tori-Shivpur-Kathautia line connecting North Karanpura coalfield in Jharkhand, another Naxal-affected state. All the necessary clearances for the project are already in place now, after a series of meetings taken by the Railway Board Chairman with the state chief secretaries and the central ministries. The rail line is being set up at an estimated cost of Rs 1,095 crore and would help move 127 mt of coal annually out of the coalfields. The third project, the longest of the three, would be a 180-kilometre stretch connecting the eastern and the western regions of the Mand-Raigarh coalfield in Chhattisgarh. The Bhupdeopur-Korba-Dharamjai corridor would free up production potential of 40 MT per annum for CIL. The miner would contribute Rs 2,880 crore of the overall project cost of Rs 4,500 crore while the rest would come from Indian railway arm IRCON and the state government.
Construction of the three lines is being monitored at the highest levels according to sources and the Coal Ministry is trying to identify other rail links which can help provide better connectivity to more such coal corridors across the country. Talks between the Coal and Railways Ministries have been taking place on these matters on a regular basis, the sources added.
India is set to commission the first of its three ambitious inter-state rail corridor projects dedicated to coal evacuation in the Naxal-affected Jharsuguda district in Odisha in a little over a year. The project is part of a bigger, though much-delayed plan to invest Rs 7,000 crore in the three rail lines to free 300 million tonnes (mt) of coal supply, locked due to logistical constraints across three states. With lack of transport infrastructure hampering coal production, the Government aims to speed up construction of three critical railway lines – namely Tori-Shivpur-Kathautia (situated in North Karanpura, Jharkhand), Jharsuguda-Barpalli-Sardega (in IB Valley, Odisha) and Bhupdeopur-Raigarh-Mand (in Chhattisgarh). These lines, which are considered critical for improving connectivity of Coal India Ltd’s (CIL) mines, are to be completed by December 2017. The construction of the three railway lines will help bring nearly 100 million tonnes of incremental traffic and facilitate faster transportation of coal to power plants. Highly placed sources said that the Coal Ministry also aims to buy 200 to 250 additional rakes in the next three years to expedite transportation of coal produced by CIL, which in turn will help improve supply of dry fuel to thermal plants. Currently there are 200-odd rakes which are carrying coal. By the time the three rail lines come up, the number of rakes, too, would be doubled, which will help add another 200 million tonnes to 300 million tonnes of coal output for CIL. The Coal Ministry is likely to place orders for purchasing 34 rakes by March 2015 by CIL.
The three rail corridor projects, entailing about Rs 7,500 crore expenditure, are currently under different phases of development. As per original plans, the rail project for North Karanpura coalfield, work on which had started in 1999, was scheduled for completion in 2005 but only half of it is likely to be completed by March, 2015. Likewise, the IB Valley project in Odisha, which too started long back, should have been completed in 2009. Coal India (CIL) has already provided over Rs 300 crore to Railways for the projects. The Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) has instructed the coal and the rail ministries to work with the Naveen Patnaik-led government to commission the Ib Valley corridor in Odisha first, by December 2014. “Both, land and forest clearances are underway for the Jharsuguda-Barpalli line. A special team under the Project Monitoring Group of the CCI is monitoring the lines now,” a senior official said. The 53-km corridor will help state-owned miner Coal India Ltd (CIL) scale production potential by an additional 132 mt a year. Only 15 per cent of this is utilised in the absence of evacuation facility. The total cost of setting up the three projects has escalated from Rs 2,000 crore when they were initially planned before the beginning of the Eleventh Plan period in 2007 to Rs 7,000 crore now. The official added that the next of the three corridors to become a reality would be the 93-km Tori-Shivpur-Kathautia line connecting North Karanpura coalfield in Jharkhand, another Naxal-affected state. All the necessary clearances for the project are already in place now, after a series of meetings taken by the Railway Board Chairman with the state chief secretaries and the central ministries. The rail line is being set up at an estimated cost of Rs 1,095 crore and would help move 127 mt of coal annually out of the coalfields. The third project, the longest of the three, would be a 180-kilometre stretch connecting the eastern and the western regions of the Mand-Raigarh coalfield in Chhattisgarh. The Bhupdeopur-Korba-Dharamjai corridor would free up production potential of 40 MT per annum for CIL. The miner would contribute Rs 2,880 crore of the overall project cost of Rs 4,500 crore while the rest would come from Indian railway arm IRCON and the state government.
Construction of the three lines is being monitored at the highest levels according to sources and the Coal Ministry is trying to identify other rail links which can help provide better connectivity to more such coal corridors across the country. Talks between the Coal and Railways Ministries have been taking place on these matters on a regular basis, the sources added.
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