CCEA's nod for doubling of Hatia-Bomdamunda railway line

To augment the line capacity for freight traffic, Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs today approved the doubling of the 158.5 km Ranchi (Hatia) - Bondamuda railway line to cater the needs of thermal power plants in the region.
Estimated to cost Rs 1921.94 crore, the doubling project will ease traffic bottlenecks in the region and will benefit Ranchi, Gumla and Simdega districts of Jharkhand and Sundargarh district of Odisha.
Chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the CCEA gave the nod for the capacity augmentation project, which is expected to serve freight traffic needs of the upcoming Super Thermal Power Plant at Barch and other thermal power plants like Katni and Baruni, according to a release.

The project is likely to be completed in the next six years during the 12th and 13th Plan period.
With the expansion of the Bokaro Steel Plant and Rourkela Steel Plant, the utilisation of the existing line capacity will be to the tune of 226 per cent and 171 per cent respectively.
Proposed Ranchi (Hatia)-Bondamunda line is a single line section which is being used for goods traffic to and from Bokaro Steel Plant and Rourkela Steel Plant and an average of 22 trains each way per day run over these sections.
This indicates that the line is over saturated with utilisation to the tune of an average of 160 per cent resulting in detention of trains and consequential loss of revenue.

Hence to cope up with the existing as well as additional traffic, doubling of the whole section is required or else the Railways will face capacity crunch in this already saturated section.