The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Wednesday approved the doubling of the Nimach-Ratlam (Madhya Pradesh) railway line as well as of the Rajkot-Kanalus (Gujarat) railway line, with an estimated project cost of over ₹1,000 crore each.
The total length of doubling of line for the Nimach-Ratlam line is 132.92 km, with an estimated project cost of ₹1,095.88 crore, and for the estimated length for the Rajkot-Kanalus railway line is 111.20 km, with an estimated cost of ₹1,080.58 crore. Both projects are targeted for completion by 2024-25.
While the Nimach-Ratlam project is expected to generate direct employment during construction for about 31.90 lakh man days, the Rajkot-Kanalus project will generate direct employment for about 26.68 lakh man days.
The Railways said in a statement: “The line capacity utilization of Nimach-Ratlam section is up to 145.6% with maintenance blocks. Project route section has become oversaturated well above optimum capacity even without a maintenance block.”
The main inward freight traffic carried is coal for captive power plants of cement companies, it said, adding that traffic on the section will further increase on account of new cement industries coming up due to the availability of huge deposits of cement grade limestone in the Nimach-Chittorgarh area.
“Thus, more goods and passenger trains can be introduced on the system. Due to proximity of cement industries, additional freight traffic of 5.67 million ton per annum is expected from the first year which will increase to 9.45 million ton per annum in eleventh year,” the statement said.
The Rajkot-Kanalus section is a part of the busy Mumbai-Ahmedabad-Viramgam-Okha section carrying traffic originating and terminating at various destinations like Porbandar, Kanalus, Wind Mill and Sikka, among others.
The existing goods traffic handled on the section mainly consists of POL (petroleum, oil and lubricant), coal, cement, fertilizer and food grains, the Railways said, adding that the freight is generated from industries connected to private sidings taking off from the project route alignment. The Railways’ statement said: “Future substantial Goods traffic is projected by big industries like Reliance Petroleum, ESSAR oil and Tata Chemical.”
