Common freight corridor in Talcher to handle 113 mt coal

The proposed 'rail-road and infrastructure corridor' in Meramundali-Angul-Talcher-Chhendipada belt is projected to handle 113 million tonne coal by 2014-15.

This includes 55 million tonne coal movement required by the power companies, 40.76 million tonne by steel companies and 17.22 million tonne by other industries.

RITES Ltd, which was entrusted with the task of preparing a pre-feasibility study for the proposed corridor, has projected the traffic volume in this belt to be 13 percent of the Indian Railway traffic (assuming an annual growth of 5 percent) and 118 percent of the East Coast Railways traffic by then.

While Indian Railways handled 833.31 mt during 2008-09, East Coast Railway handled traffic of 95.61 million tonne in the last fiscal.

Sources said, out of the projected traffic, about 20.5 million tonne coal will be moved from Talcher coalfield through inside corridor and 38.96 million tonne via Sambalpur. Similarly, 14.69 million tonne will be moved through Angul and the remaining 38.83 million tonne through Budhapanka.

As per the pre-feasibility report submitted to the state owned Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco), the movement of 113 million tonne will require running of 112 goods train per day.

On the other hand, if all the 57 industries which have been allotted coal blocks or coal linkage in the Talcher coalfields actually come up, then the coal movement will further increase to 186.16 million tonne. Besides, CMPDIL has plans for raising the production at Talcher coalfields significantly by 2016-17.

Sources said, the coal based thermal power stations are the mainstay of power development in the country and this will continue in the immediate future.

It may be noted a number of power and steel companies, which have been allotted coal blocks in the area, are facing resistance with regard to land acquisition for construction of private railway sidings. Hence, construction of a common corridor can come in handy to overcome the problem. While the coal reserves of the country is estimated at about 264 billion tonne, Orissa has about 56 billion tonne which is about 25 percent of the total reserve of the country. Out of it, Talcher coalfield boasts of 43 billion tonne.

Though the major coalfields are located in the eastern and the central parts, the consumption centres are spread over the entire country with the average distance of coal transport standing at 600 kms.

Since the transportation cost of coal is more than the cost of coal in certain cases, a dedicated freight corridor can be cost effective.