CCI agrees to review progress of 3 rail projects every quarter

Projects getting delayed due to forest and land acquisition issue

The Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) today agreed to review every quarter the progress of three rail projects, which are critical for transporting coal from CIL mines located in Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.

"CCI today agreed to review the progress of the three rail projects quarterly," a source close to the development said.

The railways lines include Tori-Shivpur-Kathotia (Hazaribagh) BG triple line for the North Karanpura coalfield (CCL Jharkhand) and Jharsuguda-Barpali BG double line for IB Valley coalfield (MCL, Odisha), sources said.

"The environmental hurdles are holding up the implementation of three rail projects," the source added.

These projects are getting delayed mainly due to forest and land acquisition issue, they added.

The government had earlier said that two rail projects, including Tori-Shivpur, are likely to be completed by the end of 2017 and will facilitate coal evacuation besides pushing up production of the fuel.

The third link, Mand-Raigarh Phase-I in Chhattisgarh, is expected to be completed in the beginning of the next Five Year Plan period, Minister of State for Coal Pratik Prakashbapu Patil had said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

"Commissioning of these rail projects would facilitate coal evacuation from ongoing and future projects and thus help in increasing the production and supply of coal from these coalfields," the minister had said.