Odisha seeks Rs 200 crore in Rail Budget for SPVs

The state government in its pre-Budget memorandum, has sought an allocation of Rs 200 crore for financing special purpose vehicles (SPVs) to execute railway projects.

Two SPVs have been planned for rail projects -- one for coal evacuation and another umbrella SPV for general rail projects in the state.

The Odisha government along with coal miner Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) and Ircon International Ltd (Ircon), under Ministry of Railways has formed an SPV for evacuation of coal.

A company named Mahanadi Coal Railway Ltd has been formed with an equity participation of 64% by MCL, 26% by Ircon International and the balance by state PSU Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation.

Initially, the company will develop the Angul-Balram rail link covering around 14 km with a capacity to transport 92 million tonne (mt) of coal. In due course, the rail link will complete the loop Angul-Balram-Talcher-Angul to facilitate unidirectional movement of wagons. The project cost is pegged at around Rs 100 crore in the first phase.

In the second phase, the SPV will take up Jharsuguda-Barpali-Sardega rail link that will enable Basundhara coal mines to produce 85 mt compared to current production of 10 million tonne.

It may be noted that MCL has produced 121mt of coal in 2014-15 and aims to increase the production to 250 mt by 2019-20.

This SPV will not only cater to the current evacuation need of the company but it will also identify the evacuation constraints, which impede the growth of MCL and accordingly, it will implement the evacuation plans.

Besides the SPVs, the state government has sought an allocation of Rs 50 crore for development of multi modal logistics parks at Kalinga Nagar, Angul, Jharsuguda, Rourkela and Choudwar. To upgrade traffic facilities, the government has requested the Railways ministry to earmark Rs 150 crore for development of goods sheds at Rourkela, Bhadrak, Jharsuguda, Sambalpur, Bolangir, Titlagarh, Khariar, Kesinga, Raygada, Jeypore, Koraput, Rairakhol, Angul, Dhenkanal, Nirgundi, Mancheswar, Khurda and Jagannathpur.