Rs 6,700 crore coal linkages revived in Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand.

NEW DELHI A special cell created in the Cabinet Secretariat to revive stalled investment projects has paved the way for laying of three critical railway lines in eastern India, more than a decade after the projects were conceived.

Once commissioned, the lines will transport more than 200 million tonne of coal from mines spread over Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand to power producers.

Estimated to cost over Rs 6,700 crore, the lines will not only save crucial foreign exchange for the country by reducing dependence on coal imports but also generate jobs and boost the local economy of the three states.

"The projects that were stalled for so many years are now likely to be completed by 2016," said Anil Swarup, secretary at the Project Monitoring Group, which was set by the prime minister last year to track large investment projects.

Although the project costs have shot up over these years, the government hopes the benefits of these lines will outweigh the costs. "We expect these three lines together to help reduce coal imports by 31 million tonne starting 2016," Swarup told ET. On one of the three lines, all forest related issues have been resolved and tree cutting is underway, he said adding that construction will begin after Monsoon. On the other two lines, stage I forest clearance has been given and compliance conditions are now being worked out.

Despite sitting on the world's fourth biggest reserves of coal, India imported about 140 million tonne of coal in the year-ended March. The government's inability to speed up investments and the slow-pace of decision making at some key ministries are largely blamed as the reasons behind this.

The first of these is the 93-km Tori-Shivpur-Kathautia line in Jharkhand. The project has overrun to Rs 3,200 crore from Rs 621 crore when it was conceived. The line has now received stage-2 environment clearance, allowing the state to handover land for construction to the government. The line will transfer coal from two large opencast mines of the Central Coal Fields Limited—Magadh (20 million tonne per annum) and Amrapali (12 million tonne per annum).

The line will supply coal to power projects in the region and also provide infrastructure support to other public and private sector investments planned along the corridor.

The railways have indicated the line will be ready by June 2016.

The second project is the 53-km Jharsuguda-Barpalli-Sardega line in Ib valley of Odisha. Cost of the project, on which work was originally scheduled to start in March 2009, has swelled to over Rs 1,000 crore from Rs 470 crore. The project has secured stage-1 forest clearance and the railways will submit its compliance report with conditions of first state clearance to seek final, stage-2 clearance.

The line will provide transport support to several mines of Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd, which are producing below their capacity because of inability to move coal.

Once this line is complete, Mahanadi Coalfields will be able to raise production by 18 million tonne from its mines in the region. This line is likely to be commissioned by June 2016.

The third and the biggest project to gather pace is the 180-km Bhupdevpur-Korichapar-Dharamjaigarh line in Chhattisgarh.

The project is being monitored by the PMG to speed up execution.

The phase-1 environment clearance will be sought soon. About 42 million tonne capacity of coal projects will move forward once this line is commissioned, which is likely by September 2016.

The three lines can together help the government meet the coal production target in the final year of the 12th Five-Year Plan (2016-17).

Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com