Talcher Coalfield has enhanced its capacity to load and evacuate 84 million tonnes (MT) of coal annually from the current year by making two more railway sidings operational here on Thursday. The facility will almost double its current capacity.
The sidings were inaugurated by MCL chief AN Sahay and Chief Operational Manager of East Coast Railway GD Brahma.
The total number of sidings at Talcher Coalfiled has now gone up to nine and henceforth, the coal rakes will not face cross movement in colliery areas. Earlier, the loading capacity at Talcher was 42 million tonnes.
Speaking to mediapersons here on Thursday, Brahma said with the addition of two sidings, not only 50 rakes can be loaded at the coalfield but also evacuated to Paradip port and other destinations.
Talcher Coalfield will undergo massive modernisation and double-lining to load more coal as per the needs of the nation, he added.
“We have also taken necessary steps to improve the capacity of Talcher-Paradip and other railway lines so as to evacuate maximum coal from Talcher. Auto signaling system is being installed on Talcher-Paradip track for the purpose,” said Brahma.
He further said since most of the coal go to Paradip for coastal shipment to the power houses in South and Western India, they intend to hike the rake dispatch capacity from Talcher to maximum 60 in coming years.
But the present capacity is enough for Mahanadi Coalfield Limited, added Brahma.
He, however, declined to comment on why Railway is not giving much importance to coal traffic and is neglecting the passenger services at Talcher station.