BHUBANESWAR: With Odisha strengthening the logistics infrastructure as part of its focus on port-led industrialisation, the state government is mulling development of new railway corridors in public-private-partnership (PPP) mode for driving economic growth in the hinterlands.
Official sources said a new rail corridor has been planned for Talcher coalfields at an estimated cost of `4,882 crore along with Gopalpur-Rayagada-Jeypore economic corridor, which will have both road and rail networks. Besides, separate port-based rail corridors are also being planned in different regions.
At a recent high-level meeting chaired by chief secretary Manoj Ahuja, it was decided to expedite both inner and outer rail corridor of Talcher for faster evacuation of coal. As per the proposed expansion plan of Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd, the coal despatch via railway is expected to touch 88 per cent (162.8 MT) by 2029-30.
While the phase-I (Angul-Balram rail link) of the inner corridor has already been commissioned, the Railway Board has already been apprised about the inner corridor phase-II (50 km Balram-Putagadia-Tentuloi-Jharpada section) and 112.56 km outer corridor from Budhapanka to Luburi via Tentuloi.
“The expanded board for railways (EBR), NITI Aayog and Network Planning Group (NPG) have already been appraised about the Talcher coalfields corridor. A decision has been taken to execute the inner corridor phase-II at `1,404.36 crore and outer corridor at `3,477.67 crore in PPP mode through joint ventures or SPV,” said the sources.
It has been decided to convene a meeting with the Railway Board officials soon to deliberate and finalise suitable PPP modalities for these critical logistic projects. The Commerce and Transport department, Idco and East Coast Railway (ECoR) have been tasked to complete the groundwork for faster finalisation of DPR, alignment and land acquisition.
The state government will soon constitute a special committee headed by additional chief secretary of Industries department Hemant Sharma with commissioner of rail coordination and representatives from ECoR and IDCO as members to finalise alignment, right of way related issues in Gopalpur-Rayagada economic corridor. Earlier, Adani Group had evinced interest to develop the 400 km economic corridor connecting Gopalpur port and Jeypore.
As part of the port-led rail corridors, doubling of Haridaspur-Paradeep Line (74.08 km), new line between Jajpur-Keonjhar Road and Dhamra Port via Jajpur and Aradi (96 km) and another new line between Gopalpur-Rairakhol (270 km) will be expedited.
Preliminary discussions were also held to construct a rail line from Raja Athagarh in Cuttack district to Kaipadar Road in Khurda district, which will be parallel to the proposed Capital Region Ring Road (Bhubaneswar bypass).
“Once commissioned, these corridors will play a vital role in ensuring the efficient, cost-effective and bulk evacuation of coal, boosting economic growth,” Ahuja said.