The Phase-I of East Rail Corridor Phase project under East Rail Corridor from Kharsia- Dharamjaigarh with a Spur line to Gare-Pelma comprising length of 132 kms being constructed at an estimated cost of Rs. 3055 crore is expected to be completed by September 2018, officials informed.
The Chhattisgarh East Railway ltd (CERl) and Chhattisgarh East West Railway ltd (CEWRl) have sought forest land diversion measuring 459.523 hectares to construct a Railway line from Gevra Road to Pendra Road for a distance of under 135.3 km, officials informed.
The railway line will pass through Deepika Katghora Sindugarh Pasan of Korba Bilaspur District to be used for freight and passanger service.
Notably, the South East Central Railway (SECR) has conducted as many as 27 Preliminary Engineering cum Traffic Surveys (PETS) during the Five Year Plan Period 2012-17 for new line projects, the Central Government has informed.
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.
Public sector IRCON International ltd has also commenced work in connection with the construction of new ‘Broad Guage Electrified Double Railway line’ in Chhattisgarh on the East West Corridor.
The work is being undertaken in Gevra Road-Pendra Road and Dipka, Kathghora, Sendurgahr and Pasan sections, officials stated.
An ‘Addendum and Corrigendum’ to the Concession Agreement between South East Central Railway (SECR) and Chhattisgarh East Railway limited (CERl) for Phase-I of East Rail Corridor project has been signed on March 21, 2017, an official press release informed here.
The agreement was signed in presence of B.R. Reddy, Chairman and Managing Director, South Eastern Coalfields ltd (SECl), A.P. Panda, Director (Finance), SECl, Dr. R.S. Jha, Director (Personnel), SECl, Kuldeep Prasad, D.T.O, SECl, P.K. Sinha, DTPP, SECl, S.l. Gupta, Director CERl and other senior officials of SECR, SECl, CERl & IRCON.
G.M.S Naidu, C.T.P.M., SECR, Bilaspur and B.Chowdhury, CEO CERl signed the agreement on behalf of SECR and CERl respectively.
The concession agreement between SECR and CERl was signed on June 12, 2015. However due to better operational issues the project now includes feeder lines to ensure end to end connectivity from coal mines to end user’s premises.
This is considered to be a significant milestone in ensuring faster implementation of the East Rail Corridor Phase-I project which will also ensure availability of Rail system to the remote villages of Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh, it stated.
