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Santanu Sanyal

Kolkata, June 2 At a meeting called recently by the Union steel secretary in Bhubaneswar, representatives of the steel industry, covering both private and public sector plants, emphasised the need for early implementation of certain rail, road and port projects, keeping in view the requirement of the new steel plants due to come up in the State in next few years.

Senior officials of the Railways, Orissa Government and other agencies concerned were also present.

The Orissa Government, it might be noted, has signed as many 49 MoUs for setting up steel plants and sponge iron units in the State, with a total capacity of more than 75 million tonnes (mt). About 28 of them, totalling 3.8 mt of steel making capacity and 5 mt of sponge iron capacity, are already at various stages of production. The indication is that by 2012, about 40 mt of capacity will be created in the State.

The railway projects identified for immediate implementation include doubling of the Daitari-Banspani line (180 km), Sambalpur-Talcher line (170 km) and Kottavalasa-Kirandul line (450 km) which covers regions in Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The 62-km long rail link between Dhamra port and Bhadrak, being implemented by Dhamra Port Company — a joint venture between Tata Steel & Larsen & Toubro — also came up for a review, it is learnt.

Inquiries with the Railways reveal that the decision to undertake survey of all the three doubling projects, as demanded by the steel industry, has been made. Besides, several other projects, under both East Coast Railway and South Eastern Railway, are in various stages of implementation and these include construction of Haridaspur-Paradip line, a third line between Jakhapura and Haridaspur, doubling of Cuttack-Barang line, construction of a third line between Barang and Khurda Road, doubling of Barang-Rajatgarh line, construction of a second railway line over Mahanadi river, a third line between Goelkhera-Monohorpur and a second line between Jaruli and Dongaposi.

Besides, keeping in view the commissioning of Gangavaram port in Andhra Pradesh shortly, a third line is being constructed between Kottavalasa and Vizianagaram and a fourth line between Kottavalasa and Simhachalam.

Among the road projects discussed were four-laning of National Highway (NH) 215 between Barbil and Keonjhar, NH 42 between Cuttack and Sambalpur and NH 400 between Jharsuguda and Raigad.

The work on the four-laning of NH 5A, between Chandikhol and Paradip, is nearing completion.

The steel industry representatives also stressed the need for creation of additional cargo handling capacity in Paradip port in view of the additional requirement of the new plants and for expediting the implementation of a new port at the mouth of the Kirtania river near Jaleshwar.

The representatives particularly wanted the Centre to immediately take up with the Orissa Government issues like land acquisition, allocation of mines, relief and rehabilitation and the law and order situation, which, they felt, were very critical for new plants to come up in the State.

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