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To facilitate better and efficient evacuation of coal from North Karanpura coalfield area of Central Coalfields Limited, the Ministry of Coal (Moc) signed a tripartite memorandum of understanding (MoU) with state government of Jharkhand and Ministry of Railways (MoR). The MoU is for the formation of a joint venture to undertake project development, financing and implementation of identified projects on equity basis.
The JV will have an authorised share capital of Rs 1,000 crores. While MoC shall have a holding of 64%, MoR and GoJ shall hold 26% and 10% respectively. All the parties involved have reached a consensus that there is a need for development of rail infrastructure for evacuation of coal through rail. The development of the corridors shall be implemented either through the proposed JV or through separate project-specific joint venture companies. The JV also extends for construction of railways sidings under the Tori-Shivpur-Kathotia railway line.
“Most importantly, on completion of this critical railway line around 200 million tonnes of coal per annum would be transported from Jharkhand with which 40,000 MW of power could be generated. This would be in line with government’s policy for power for all. Additionally, not only coal but there could be freight movement of other material. There could also be passenger movement which will benefit the people. There could be employment opportunities as well. The basic idea is to speed up the critical Tori-Shivpur-Kathotia railway line," said Piyush Goyal, minister of state for coal, power and renewable energy.
The railway line is 93.5 Kms long and covers a total area of 1,053 hectares is one among the three critical lines that Coal India Limited behemoth is actively pursuing to better coal evacuation. The other two are in Chattisgarh and Odisha. The major recipients of the coal would be the power utilities of North and western Grid.
