The Singareni Collieries Limited (SCCL) handed over a cheque for ₹200 crore to the South Central Railway (SCR) towards completion of the 54.10-km Bhadrachalam Road-Sattupalli new rail line project towards the year-end. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between both organisations at the Rail Nilayam on Wednesday.
SCR general manager Gajajan Mallya and SCCL chairman and managing director N. Sridhar signed the pact in the presence of top officials from the organisations. The SCCl has so far paid up to ₹365 crore of the ₹618.55 crore revised cost estimates for additional works, taking the total project cost to ₹927.94 crore, up from ₹704 crore. The railways’ share is ₹309.39 crore for the line which will be used for environment-friendly transport of coal from open cast mines around Sattupalli.
The project was cleared by the Railway Board in March, 2017, and the SCCL had then deposited ₹156.38 crore as per the initial cost estimate. About 90% of the 353 hectares of land acquisition for the project has already been completed with the support of the State government, said railway officers. There are about 10 major bridges along the route covering the Bhadradri-Kothagudem and Khammam districts, of which seven bridges are under progress.
Another 40 minor bridges, eight road-overbridges, 34 road-underbridges and three crossing stations have to be constructed. Once completed, the railway line would help in moving up to nine million tonnes of coal to Bhadrachalam for feeding power plants like Kothagudem thermal power station and Kondapalli thermal power station, they explained.
The railways would get a revenue of about ₹160 crore per annum and help in socio-economic growth of the districts concerned with rail connectivity and pollution control due to reduced dependence on road transport, said Mr. Mallya. The SCCL would extend total support towards early completion, said Mr. Sridhar. Additional GM B.B.Singh and other top officials were present at the meeting.
