New Delhi: In a move to give a fillip to the export industry, the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs (CCEA) chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi Thursday approved the construction of third railway line between Bhadrak and Narayangarh in West Bengal.
Briefing the media after the Cabinet meeting, Union Ministers Arun Jaitley and Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the 155-km long railway line to be constructed at a cost of Rs 1866.31 crore will be completed in 2023-24 financial year.
According to a statement from the Railway ministry, the construction of the third line will help create capacity to manage the existing as well as additional traffic. The busy section between Narayangarh and Bhadrak is mainly used for the movement of coking coal to steel plants as well as movement of ore exported from areas of Chakradharpur to several ports.
“The third line will ease congestion on this route. Narayangarh – Bhadrak section forms a part of the Howrah-Chennai trunk route. The present utilisation (with maintenance block) of the section between Narayangarh & Bhadrak is 138 per cent as per Line Capacity Statement, 2014-15. Over and above the heavy freight traffic, the route has to accommodate 47 pairs of coaching trains including high-speed ones like Bhubaneswar Rajdhani, Howrah-Yesvantpur Duronto, Howrah-Puri Duronto, Sealdah-Puri Duronto & Howrah-Puri Shatabdi Express. This makes it highly congested,” the ministry said.
The ministry further said that this railway line would boost the economies of Odisha and West Bengal.
“It will help in smooth transportation of coal. It will also help the steel plants, power plants as well as the export industry, which will boost the economies of Odisha and West Bengal, and entire East India,” the railway ministry said.
The ministry further stated that the project will help generate direct employment for about 37.2 lakh man-days during construction, and has the potential to generate indirect employment as well.