Railways likely to complete JSG-Barpali project by June 2016

Coal production from Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) is expected to get a fillip in coal evacuation as Indian Railways is expected to complete the 52 km-long Barpali-Jharsuguda line by June 2016.
MCL official said company Chairman-cum-Managing Director A N Sahay today travelled about 35 kms on the proposed rail line project with the construction officials of the Railways and also inspected the progress of related works for completion of the rail project.
The Railways construction authorities assured that the rail link would be completed by June 2016, an MLC official said.
The proposed rail link will be a shot in the arm of MCL, which is looking for coal evacuation solutions to increase coal production from its Basundhara and Siarmal project area of Ib Valley Coalfields, the official said.

Despite having all resources and capabilities to increase production, MCL at present has restricted its production and evacuates only 10 million tonnes of coal through road.
Completion of the single line at the estimated cost of Rs 1,007 crore, is projected to increase off-take from MCL by 35 million tones. This would also increase the dispatch to 45 million tonne from Basundhara and Siarmal project areas, which will further feed about nine million tone to its proposed 800x2 MW super critical thermal power plant within the area, he said.
MCL as Coal India's leading arm targets 250 million tonnes coal production by 2020. It has also earmarked Rs 2,400 crore for doubling of Jharsuguda-Barpali rail.

MCL contributes 25 per cent of total coal production of Coal India Limited, sources said.