Rajkot-Kanalus and Nimach-Ratlam lines to be completed in four years
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved doubling of Rajkot-Kanalus and the Nimach-Ratlam railway lines on 29 Sept 2021.
The 111.20 km Rajkot-Kanalus line, with escalated completion cost is Rs.1,168.13 crore, is to be completed in four years.
The existing goods traffic handled on the section mainly consists of POL, Coal, Cement, Fertilizer and Food grains. The freight is generated from industries connected to private sidings taking off from the project route alignment.
Future substantial Goods traffic is projected by big industries like Reliance Petroleum, ESSAR oil and Tata Chemical.
The single line BG section between Rajkot—Kanalus has become over saturated and there is a need for additional parallel BG line to ease out operational working.
Thirty pairs of passenger and mail express trains are plying on the section and existing line capacity utilization with maintenance block is up to 157.5%.
Detention to both Goods and Passenger traffic will be reduced considerably after doubling. Doubling of the section will increase the capacity and more traffic can be introduced on the system.The proposed doubling from Rajkot to Kanalus would lead to all round development of Saurashtra region.
The 132.92-km Nimach-Ratlam railway line, with escalated completion cost of Rs.1,184.67 crore, to be completed in four years.
The line capacity utilization of Nimach-Ratlam section is up to 145.6% with maintenance blocks. Project route section has become over saturated well above optimum capacity even without maintenance block. The main inward freight traffic carried is coal for captive power plants of cement companies.
Traffic on the section will further increase on account of new cement industries coming up due to availability of huge deposits of cement grade lime stone in Nimach-Chittorgarh area.
Doubling of Nimach-Ratlam section will increase the capacity of section. 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 1st year which will increase to 9.45 million ton per annum in 11 year.
This will provide easy connectivity as well as well result in socio-economic development of region. Project will also boost tourism in the area as many historical sites including Fortof Unchagarh are situated in the project area. #tenders #projects #infrastructure #investment /fiinews.com
