BHUBANESWAR: The much-needed third line of the Nergundi-Barang and Khurda Road-Vizianagaram sections got a big push with the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday approving their construction along with other multi-tracking projects of the Ministry of Railways.
The third line between Nergundi-Barang and Khurda Road-Vizianagaram with a length of 385 km on the Howrah-Chennai mail line is estimated to cost Rs 5,618 crore. Around 184 km of the new line will pass through Bhadrak, Jajpur, Khurda, Cuttack and Ganjam districts while the remaining 201 km will cover three districts in Andhra Pradesh, sources in the East Coast Railway said.
Meanwhile, construction of Bhadrak-Nergundi third line project under Khurda Road Division of East Coast Railway is going on in full swing and more than 54 per cent of the work has already been completed. The Bhadrak-Nergundi section of 92.19 km length of the project was included in 2012-13 and the final sanction given in October, 2015. Work between Jakhapura and Haridaspur, a stretch of 23.53 km was completed in April 2016 while another 4.3 km stretch from Kapilas Road to Nergundi was commissioned in October 2022, sources added.
Construction of six major bridges on Birupa river (488 mt), Mahanadi (2,096 mt), Kothjori (822 mt), Kuakhai (822 mt), Rusikulya (457M) and Banasdhara (410M) are part of the multi-tracking project.In February this year, the Network Planning Group (NPG) constituted under the institutional framework of PM Gati Shakti national master plan had recommended early completion of the balance sections between Bhadrak and Vizianagaram. Upon completion, the third line will boost transportation of domestic coal from Odisha to south India through rail route from Talcher, coal from Paradeep and Gopalpur ports to steel plants, raw materials like clinker and pet coke for cement plants from Paradeep port.
Apart from benefiting export of steel from various steel plants, the third line will help faster movement of iron ore from mines in Keonjhar district to various ports of Andhra Pradesh and seamless transportation of coal from Vishakhaptnam and Gangavaram ports to steel plants in Odisha, sources said.
The new line will also assist the railways in running more trains on Odisha and Andhra Pradesh routes. The project will also directly facilitate movement to goods sheds at Khurda, Jagannathpur, and Srikakulam which are points of multi-modal logistics, and shift the major road cargo movement to rail. It will decongest the stretch on the section of Howrah-Chennai railway route and enhance the modal share of railways as the stretch is dedicated to freight movement.