BHUBANESWAR: The Ministry of Coal will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Railway and the State Government on April 20 for implementation of common rail corridor projects for evacuation of coal.
"MoU (memorandum of understanding) to be signed on April 20 between the Coal and Railway ministries and Odisha Government to implement railway projects for coal evacuation," Union Coal Secretary Anil Swarup tweeted on Saturday.
During his February visit to the State, Swarup had said two special purpose vehicles (SPV) will be jointly formed by Odisha Government, Railways and Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) for evacuation of coal from Talcher and Ib Valley areas.
The Union Coal Secretary had discussed the issue with with Chief Secretary GC Pati and senior officials of East Coast Railway and MCL.
In the proposed SPV, MCL will have 64 per cent stake while Indian Railways and State Government will have a share of 26 per cent and 10 per cent respectively.
Meanwhile, the State Government has set up an SPV, Brahmani Railways Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) with a share capital of `10 crore, for implementation of common rail corridor project for Talcher-Angul-Chhendipada region.
The common rail corridor project for Talcher-Angul-Chhendipada coal bearing areas aims to cater to the rail transport demand of the coal block region. It entails an investment of `8,000 crore in the first project.
The 143-km common coal corridor will have a capacity to handle 138 million tonnes (mt) of coal per annum. The corridor will cater to requirement of all blocks in Talcher coalfields. RITES Ltd, an engineering consultancy company of the Indian Railways and technical consultant of IDCO, has furnished the corridor alignment for 11 revenue villages for extension of the main corridor upto Mandakini loading point.
The Railway Ministry has recently reviewed the progress of three rail corridor projects, including the Jharsuguda-Barpali-Sardega in Ib Valley. As per the original plan, Ib Valley project was scheduled to be completed in 2009.
The `470 crore Jharsuguda-Barpali railway link project was announced in January 2006 by the CIL to link its Ib Valley coalfields. The project is likely to be completed by 2017.