There are a total of nine new railway track projects being implemented under South East Central Railway (SECR), the Central Government has informed.
SECR conducted as many as 27 Preliminary Engineering cum Traffic Surveys (PETS) during the Five Year Plan Period 2012-17 for new line projects.
Reconnaissance / Preliminary Engineering cum Traffic Survey is pre-requisite for consideration of any new investment proposal for new projects to assess the likely investment, traffic potential and return from the same. Based on the outcome of Reconnaissance / Preliminary Engineering cum Traffic Survey, projects are sanctioned / included in Budget Document(Pink Book) on the basis of remunerativeness, last mile connectivity, missing links and alternate routes, augmentation of congested/saturated lines, socio-economic considerations etc. depending upon throwforward of ongoing project, overall availability of funds and competing demands.
Notably, the Centre has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) each with the States of Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh for critical coal connectivity projects to improve transportation .
Agreement for World Bank loan of US $ 1100 million for Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) (Phase-2) have also been signed, they stated.
Freight train with speed of maximum 100 kms per hour will pass through Chhattisgarh in the East-West Corridor (Kolkata-Mumbai).
The train will traverse through the States of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra as the Ministry of Railways has sanctioned implementation of Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC) and Western Dedicated Freight Corridor (WDFC) with freight train speeds of maximum 100 Kmph.
The Central government’s approval for construction of 165 km long third railway line between Anuppur and Katni in Madhya Pradesh is expected to facilitate additional coal transportation traffic from parts of Chhattisgarh.
The coal transportation traffic from IB valley, Korba area, East Corridor and Gevra – Pendra Road Project in Chhattisgarh would be channelized through the aforesaid route to the respective destinations, officials stated.
