Odisha Common Corridor Project to be done with Railways

The Odisha government today decided to undertake the proposed Angul-Talcher-Chhendipada Common Corridor Project in partnership with the Railways.
The decision in this regard was taken at a meeting presided over by Chief Secretary G C Pati which was attended by officials of the railways and the state government.
"It has been decided in the meeting that the rail corridor project will be taken up in partnership between the state government and the Indian Railways," Pati said while directing the officials to prepare a definite proposal for approval of the state government.
A study report on financial feasibility report of 162 km long Angul-Talcher-Chhendipada Common Corridor Project was presented and discussed in the meeting.

The proposed corridor will cater to the transport requirement of 32 coal blocks in the area besides saving substantial amount as transportation expenditure.
A total of 6,200 acres of land is to be acquired for the Rs 1,240 crore project, being implemented by the Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco).

The common corridor will support 10 blocks operating in the Talcher coalfields under the command area of Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd. It is expected to handle coal traffic in excess of 100 million tonnes a year. The corridor will be connected to rail heads at Jharpada, Angul and Budhapanka.
As many as 55 industries including steel plants and power projects would be benefited by the project.

The meeting also reviewed the progress of different railway projects in the state.
The Chief Secretary asked the Collector and SPs of the districts concerned to provide required assistance in distribution of compensation and ground level operations.
Pati asked railway officers to complete the projects within the scheduled time as they are designed for the coming 'Nabakalebara' festival of the Lord Jagannath in Puri.
The projects included doubling of Delang-Puri, Khurda- Barang (3rd line), Cuttack-Barang, Raja Athagarh-Barang, Titlagarh-Raipur, Sambalpur-Titlagarh, Sambalpur-Talcher and Bansapani-Tomka-Jakhapura rail lines.
Definite budget allocations have been done against all these projects during 2014-15.
As per the decision at the meeting, the antisocial elements creating bottlenecks in implementation of the projects would be strongly dealt with.