The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved an equity investment of Rs 1033.54 crore by Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers Limited (RCF) for setting up a Coal Gasification based fertilizer project by Talcher Fertilizer Limited (TFL) in Odisha.

An official statement said this capital infusion is approximately 29.67 per cent of the total project cost. The capital expenditure of the project has been pegged at Rs 11,611.48 crore with a 15 per cent cost escalation provision.

TFL is a Joint Venture company of GAIL (India) Limited, RCF, Coal India Limited (CIL) and Fertilizer Corporation of India Limited (FCIL) incorporated in November 2015. GAIL, RCF and CIL each have a shareholding of 29.67 per cent and FCIL has 10.99 per cent. TFL has been tasked with setting up a coal gasification based fertilizer project at Talcher, District Angul, Odisha.

GAIL and CIL are both Maharatna Public Sector Enterprises and their Board is competent to approve their equity investment in the Joint Venture company TFL. But a CCEA approval was a warranted since RCF is a Miniratna company and its equity investment in the project is beyond the delegated financial powers of its Board.

The CCEA also has approved the construction of a new railway line between Budni to Indore (Mangaliyagaon) with approximate length of 205.5 Km. Total estimated cost of this project is Rs 3261.82 crore.

An official statement said, “The main purpose of this project is the development of backward area and reduction in travel time from Indore to Jabalpur as well as from Indore to Mumbai and towards southern side also, as this will reduce distance by 68 kilometers compared to present available route via Bhopal.”

In another decision, the CCEA has approved the Revised Cost Estimate of Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP).

The revised cost of the project is Rs 3,466 crore with the financial assistance of the World Bank to improve safety and operational performance of 198 Dams, along with institutional strengthening with system wide management approach.

“Out of Rs 3,466 crore, Rs 2,628 crore will be funded by the World Bank and Rs 747 crore will be funded by DRIP States / Implementing Agencies (IAs) and balance Rs 91 crore to be funded by Central Water Commission (CWC). The CCEA also gave its ex-post facto approval for two-year time extension from July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2020,” the official statement said.

The Scheme envisages comprehensive rehabilitation of 198 existing dam projects located in seven states namely, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand.

The initial cost of DRIP was Rs 2100 crore with State component of Rs 1968 crore and Central component of Rs 132 crore. Initially the project was a six-year Project which commenced on April 18, 2012 with a scheduled closing on June 30, 2018.

The CCEA has also given its ex-post facto approval to the ASHA Benefit Package with effect from October 2018 (to be paid in November, 2018). The package entails an expenditure (Central funding) of Rs 1,224.97 crore for two years 2018-2019 and 2019-2020.

The Union Cabinet has approved the extension of timeline for implementation of the Special Package under Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) for Jammu & Kashmir for one year during 2018-2019.

There is no additional financial implication as the approval is to extend the timeline to cover two thirds of the vulnerable households in the State within in the originally approved financial outlay of Rs 755.32 crore. An amount of Rs 143.604 crore will be required for the period of one year during 2018-2019, an official statement said.

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