Title - Steps On To Ground Angul-Talcher-Chhendipada Common Railway Corridor

Bhubaneswar: In taking forward the decisions of Govt to develop common railway corridor for Angul- Chhendipada-Talcher coal belt, Chief Secretary Bijay Kumar Patnaik has asked IDCO to go ahead with land acquisition. The instruction has been given in a review meeting held under his chairmanship in secretariat conference hall today wherein CMD IDCO Sri Pradeep Kumar Jena outlined various facets of the proposed corridor.Review reveals that the alignment of the corridor has been finalized and the preliminary project proposal has been prepared.  The proposed Corridor is situated in Angul- Talcher- Chendipada coal belt flanked by Jarapada-Chhendipada road, NH-42, and NH-23 road networks.   It has been decided in the meeting that the corridor will be  a composite one with railway, road and water tracks.  The entire length of the corridor will be about 85 kms. The project has been envisaged to be developed in 3 phases. In first phase the  main corridor of Jarpada-Tentuloi track  21.75 Kms and Western Corridor of  Tentuloi- Nuagaon Telisahi 21.907 kms  track will be taken up.In second phase Branch Line corridor connecting Utkal coal blocks and Radhikapur east will be constructed; and , in third phase rest of the coal blocks connecting up to Budhapank will be developed.  The proposed corridor will link more than 10 coal blocks including Baitarani west, Machhkund & Chhendipada, new Patrapada, Nuagaon Telisahi Radhikapur and Utkal coal blocks.  Around 5000 acres of land will be required for the purpose. The first hand estimate shows near about Rs 5000 cr will be invested for development of the project excluding the land cost.

Sources say, around 57 industries including NALCO, JSPL, IMFA, Monnet, Rungta Mines , Maha-Guj, MAHAGENCO and TATA will be benefited from this corridor.  Out of this 57 industries 23 are in steel sector, 22 in power sector, and 12 are in other sectors. The number of beneficiary industries will further increase with allotment of more coal blocks. In the meanwhile  meetings and consultations have been held with different stake holders. Many stake holders have expressed their interest in the project and have welcome it.

Chief Secretary Sri Patnaik has directed to examine different modes of operation of the proposed carridor trough engagement of a professionalized advisory body. It has been decided to engage one dedicated Land acquisition officer for the project. It has also been decided that if necessity be OMC will provide financial support for development of the project. Principal Secretary Finance J.K.Mohapatra, Pr. Secretary Law D. Dash, Secretary Steel & Mines D.K.Singh, Director, OMC Saswat Mishra along with other senior officials participated in discussions.