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Rites Ltd, the engineering and consultancy arm of Indian Railways, would submit the detailed project report (DPR) on the proposed common coal corridor in the Angul-Talcher-Chhendipada belt by October this year.
The 143 km long corridor is estimated to cost Rs 8000 crore.
At a recent meeting held to expedite the project, it was decided that Rites would submit the DPR by October instead of the November 2014 timeline stipulated earlier.
A total of 6200 acres is to be acquired for the project, the total cost of which has been worked out to be Rs 1240 crore.
The project is being implemented by the state's land acquisition agency Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco), which is set to initiate the process of socio-economic survey for the project soon. Also, the environment wing of Idco would prepare the forest diversion proposal (FDP) for the project.
Land acquisition proposal for the Jharpada-Tentuloi portion of the corridor has been prepared and acquisition cost of this portion has been assessed at Rs 150 crore.
A special purpose vehicle called Brahmani Railways, a wholly owned subsidiary of Idco, has been formed with a share capital of Rs 10 crore, to implement the project.
SBI Caps, a wholly owned subsidiary of State Bank of India (SBI) has been engaged as a consultant for financial structuring of the project. It has begun discussion with Ministry of Railways for preparation of the draft concession agreement
The common corridor will support 10 blocks operating in the Talcher coalfields under the command area of Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL). It is expected to handle coal traffic in excess of 100 million tonne every year. The proposed corridor will be connected to rail heads at three locations- Jharpada, Angul and Budhapanka.
The common corridor will have multiple entry and exit points and no surface crossing. Besides, flyovers have also been proposed to avoid cross movements at junction stations.
It may be noted a number of power and steel companies, which have been allotted coal blocks in the area, are facing resistance with regard to land acquisition for construction of private railway sidings. The proposed common corridor is expected to overcome the problem.
As many as 55 industries including steel plants and power projects are expected to be beneficiaries of this infrastructure facility.
