The Centre has given its consent for the construction of broad gauge railway line connecting Kothagudem with Sattupalli.
The Union Government communicated the endorsement of the detailed project report of the new line, spanning 53.2 km, with an estimated cost of ₹ 704.31 crore. The project has been envisaged in view of the coal mining projects operated by Singareni Collieires Company Limited in Sattupalli where open cast mines were reporting daily production of 10,000 tonne and it had been targeted to achieve 100 lakh tonne production a year through the opencast mines in the coming years.
Coal produced from Sattupalli opencast is being supplied to thermal power plants including the KTPS at Paloncha and coal linkage for the upcoming Bhadradri and Yadadri power plants was also being made from Sattupalli. The SCCL could save cost of coal transport through trucks. Carrying coal through trains would make it environment friendly too.
The detailed project estimate had been prepared after undertaking a survey across the route and the Centre made item wise allocations for the project. Accordingly, ₹ 586.44 crore had been sanctioned for civil engineering works, electrical engineering work (₹ 34.47 crore), S&T engineering work (₹ 29.99 crore) and electrical (T.R.D) work (₹ 53.41 crore).
The SCCL would bear the cost of construction of the railway line amounting to ₹ 620 crore while the South Central Railway would bear the cost of land acquisition. Chairman and Managing Director N. Sridhar, of SCCL, thanked the Railway Ministry for sanctioning the project and urged them to take up land acquisition and construction works expeditiously.
Once completed, the railway line would facilitate transport of major chunk of coal in cost-effective manner and it would, in turn, address the problems relating to stock position in the power stations.
