A joint meeting was held between the Minister of Railways D.V.Sadananda Gowda and the Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Coal & Power and New & Renewable Energy, Shri Piyush Goyal regarding three critical rail connectivity projects for coal movementnnec t in the state of Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh. Also present on the occasion were Minister of State for Railways Shri Manoj Sinha, Chairman, Railway Board, Shri Arunendra Kumar, Railway Board Members and senior officials from Ministry of Coal & Power and Railways. These three projects are; 1) Tori-Shivpur (44 kms) Shivpur-Kathautia (53 kms) railway line in North Karanpura in Jharkhand. It is a deposit work of Coal India Limited. 2) Jharsuguda-Barpalli-Sardega railway line (53 kms) in lb Valley, Odisha. It is a deposit work of Coal India Limited. 3) Bhupdevpuir-Korichapan-Dharamjaigarh (180 kms) in Mand-Raigarh coalfield, Chhattisgarh.
The matter was discussed in detail to produce and transport 100 million tonnes of coal for augmenting the power generation in the country. The Railway Minister Shri Gowda, Minister of State for Railways Shri Sinha and Coal & Power Minister Shri Goyal stressed the need for completing the projects on time with clear timelines. Railway Minister gave instructions for better coordination among various stake holders and all concerned officers were given instructions to comply with timelines for construction of these lines. These three projects are progressing slowly due to land acquisition and forest clearance issues at the state level. It was decided to have continuous monitoring of these projects at Minister’s level in order to give fillip to the construction of these lines. A multi disciplinary Project Monitoring Unit is being formed with representative from Railways, Ministry of Coal and Department of Revenue and Forest of concerned State Government for better coordination. A visit to Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh by high officials of all concerned Ministries is likely to take place next week to sort out the pending issues of land acquisition and forest and environment.