Bhubaneswar: The East Coast Railway (ECoR) and Angul-Sukinda Railway Limited (ASRL) signed an agreement for operations and maintenance (O&M) of 98.70 km broad gauge single railway line between Budhapank station (Angul) and Baghuapal station (Sukinda).
Managing Director of ASRL Dilip Kumar Samantaray and Chief Commercial Manager (Freight) of ECoR H L Luang signed the memorandum Tuesday in presence of ECoR General Manager Roop Narayan Sunkar.
Angul-Sukinda Railway Limited, an SPV has been incorporated by the Ministry of Railway through Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd. (RVNL) for construction and maintenance of 98.70 km broad gauge railway line between Budhapank station (Angul District) and Baghuapal station (near Sukinda in Jajpur District) in Odisha.
This new rail-line will provide a direct link between iron-ore rich areas of Odisha (Joda-Barbil) to steel and sponge iron industries in Angul region. It also provides a shorter and congestion free alternative route between coal mining belt of Talcher to coal-based thermal power plant in Kalinga Nagar Industrial areas (at Sukinda), an official said.
This new line will be in close proximity to the steel plants in Angul region, NALCO and a cluster of Industries located in Kalinga Nagar area of Odisha.
The project line will also reduce the distance between Rourkela (steel plant) and Dhamara/Paradeep Ports. Dispatch of finished products of steel plants from Kalinga Nagar complex to destinations in Mumbai and Delhi via Talcher-Sambalpur-Jharsuguda will also be shorter and cheaper via the new alignment as compared with the route via Kharagpur.
The 98.70 km long project was sanctioned in 1998-99 and was incorporated in 2009. After the process of land acquisition and other technical solutions, the project of about Rs 2,440 crore has been targeted to be completed by December 2022.
PTI
