BHUBANESWAR: The East Coast Railway (ECoR) on Saturday conducted a trial run on around 12 km broad gauge line from Nayagarh Town to Mahipur railway station of the on-going 289 km Khurda Road-Balangir Rail line project.
The trial run started at 12 noon with an engine rolling from Nayagarh to Mahipur.
The engine reached Mahipur and returned to Nayagarh as per schedule at a speed of about 100 km per hour.
The track is likely to be opened for traffic after a high-level inspection by Commissioner, Railway Safety (CRS) next week.
“Construction work between Nayagarh Town and Mahipur Section has been completed and will be opened for traffic after it is declared fit for running of trains by the CRS, who is scheduled to visit on July 25,” said chief PRO of ECoR JP Mishra.
ECoR has already completed and commissioned about 80 km of rail line, including 65.455 km from Khurda Road to Nayagarh Town and 14.580 km from Balangir to Bichhupalli of the 25-year-old project.
With the newly-built 12-km rail line from Nayagarh Town to Mahipur, altogether 92 km rail line of Khurda Road-Balangir on-going project has been completed.
Since trial runs of engine have already been started on the 12-km track, people have been advised to be careful regarding movement of engine on the track and keep cattle/other animals away.
For early completion and expediting the construction work, Railways has started constructing the line from both ends and the Centre in Union Budget-2019 sanctioned Rs 350 crore for the railway project.
While the cost of the project has been escalated two-fold to Rs 2,350 crore, Rs 956 crore has been spent so far.
Delay in land acquisition due to lack of approvals from the Ministry of Environment and Forest was the major bottleneck.