Comments
South-Eastern Railway (SER) has asked CESC Ltd, a private sector power utility, to build an additional length of railway line, in excess of what the company is supposed to do on its own to facilitate coal movement for the 1,200-MW power plant being set up at Haldia.
Confirming the news, CESC sources said the additional construction would cost Rs 20-25 crore more. An estimated 2.8 million tonnes of coal annually would be transported to the power-generating plant, when operating in full capacity.
The construction of the additional railway line by CESC will be needed to facilitate the doubling work, currently in progress between Panskura and Haldia, covering a distance of about 60 km.
The doubling work, taken up a few years ago, was progressing at a slow pace, the sources conceded.
The work on 16 km has been completed so far, with the prospect of another eight km likely to be completed in next six months. Of the balance 36 km or so, the work on 30 km is targeted to be completed by March 2013.
The portion for which CESC will be responsible, too, it is hoped, will be complete by 2013-end/early 2014.
Inquiries revealed that doubling network has to be extended right up to Haldia dock, covering another eight km. The dock authorities have to bear the cost of the construction of the additional portion.
“It is not provided in the current year's plan budget,” said a source close to the dock, adding, “perhaps we may have to include it in the revised budget.”
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.