New Delhi: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved the following:-
- The New Broad Gauge Electrified Line of 294.53 route Kms from Katghora to Dongargarh will provide rail connectivity to unserved areas of Chhattishgarh, opening them up for industrial development through movement of freight to the busy Jharsuguda-Nagpur section of Howrah Mumbai route by avoiding busy yards of Bilaspur, Champa and Durg stations.
- The Korba, Bilaspur, Mungeli, Kabirdham and Rajnandgaon districts of Chhattisgarh will be benefitted by this new rail line.
- Estimated cost of this project is Rs. 5950.47 crore to be implemented by a Project SPV namely Chhattisgarh Katghora-Dongarhgarh Railway Limited with equity participation of Ministry of Railways and Government of Chhattisgarh through Chhattisgarh Railway Corporation Ltd (CRCL) and private stakeholders.
With opening up of Raigarh District (Raigarh-Mand) to coal mining, it is expected that South Eastern Coalfields Ltd. and various end use miners will increase coal mining in Chhattisgarh State from the present 150MTPA to 250MTPA in near future. This project will reduce congestion on the existing Jharsuguda-Nagpur route which has more than 135% average utilization as on 2014-15. This will add nearly 30-35 MTPA capacity to system of Indian Railways which is nearly 3% of its present output. This project will also provide a faster dedicated route to west bound traffic of SECR, serve unserved areas of the State of Chhattisgarh and facilitate setting up of industry along the route. This is the first project of its kind and magnitude to be undertaken through the State Joint Venture route.
Chhattisgarh Railway Corporation Ltd. (CRCL) is a Joint Venture between Ministry of Railways (MoR) and Chhattisgarh Government on 49:51 basis in the form of a company under the Companies Act 2013 for jointly identifying, mobilizing resources and monitoring of the Railway Projects in various States. Accordingly, CRCL has prepared a Detailed Project Report for a new single electrified railway line between existing Dongargarh Station on Nagpur-Raipur route and Katghora, a station on the under execution section from Gevra Road-Pendra Road.
