The Hindu Business Line : East Coast Railway clears many projects in AP, Orissa

The authorities of the projects will be required to set up private Railway sidings to facilitate movement of raw materials as well as finished products by rail.

Kolkata May 11 East Coast Railway (ECoR), with headquarters in Bhubaneswar, is gearing itself up to meet the increased requirements of rail transportation facilities in parts of Andhra Pradesh and in large parts of Orissa.

ECoR has given rail transportation clearances to 84 projects being set up in the private sector, of which 56 are under its Khurda division, 15 under Waltair and 13 under Sambalpur.

Of these, 41 projects under various stages of implementation - 32 in Khurda division, six in Sambalpur and three in Waltair - have already sought ECoR help.

Under the rail transportation clearance, the authorities of the projects concerned will be required to set up private Railway sidings to facilitate movement of raw materials as well as finished products by rail.

Depending on the guaranteed cargo support, the Railways will bear part of the cost of the sidings, particularly the cost of superstructure.

These are called assisted sidings.

Almost all the new sidings being set up will be assisted sidings, said ECoR sources.

The cost of a siding varies from Rs 3.5 crore to Rs 6 crore per km depending on the topography of the area.

The length of the siding too varies from one project to another - from less than one km to as long as 27 km.

The Orissa Government has signed a large number of MoUs with private firms for setting up new industrial units, mostly in the steel sector and also covering sponge iron units.

The MoUs include power projects, cement plants and aluminium plants to be complete with bauxite mining facilities, production of alumina as well as metals.

The steel plants will be concentrated in Kalinganagar and Sambalpur areas, the bauxite mining and alumina production in Koraput, aluminium plants in Sambalpur-Jharsuguda and power plants in Talcher-Dhenkanal.

In Daitari-Banspani, where construction of a high-capacity line has been completed by the Railways, four steel plants are already in operation and a dozen more are to likely to be set up.

Private Railway sidings will be needed for all these projects. At least seven sidings will have to be set up to cater to the requirements of the mines in Nayagarh.

Among the Railway projects in Andhra Pradesh are the construction of third line between Vizianagaram and Kottavalasa, fourth line between Kottavalasa and Simhachalam and providing rail connectivity to Gangavaram port, due to be commissioned next year.

Also, survey work is in progress in respect of doubling of the 580-km Kirandul-Kottavalasa line.

There will be multiple rail connectivity between Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam soon, the sources said.

In Orissa, the projects receiving priority are: construction of the second bridge on the Mahanadi, construction of third line between Jakhapura and Haridaspur, between Bhadrak and Nirgundi and between Barang and Khurda Road.

The Talcher-Paradip line is being electrified.

Soon, all lines around Cuttack will be double lines, the sources added.

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East Coast Railway clears many projects in AP, Orissa