The State-owned Singareni Collieries Company Ltd has released the first instalment of ₹50 crore for construction of the ₹620-crore Kothagudem-Sathupally railway line.
N Sridhar, CMD, SCCL, handed over the cheque to Vinod Kumar Yadav, General Manager, South Central Railways, and requested for the completion of the railway line before starting the opencast mine project at Kistaram (Sathupally) in 2019.
SCCL to bear costWhile the Railway Board had accorded permission for construction of the Kothagudem-Sathupally broadgauge railway line, Singareni has agreed to bear the construction cost of ₹620 crore for the 53.2-km railway line.
Land acquisition is under way and tenders have been called for the construction of a few bridges. The Railways requested Singareni to facilitate acquisition of forest and private lands and secure permissions from the government.
The project will be completed within two years from the date of completion of land acquisition, Vinod Kumar said. The completion of this railway line will enable transport coal from Sathupally to Kothagudem in an environment-friendly way.
Coal productionThe present production and transport from JVR OC mines is 55 lakh tonnes of coal a year. It will be 100 lakh tonnes shortly and will need rail line to transport coal for thermal power stations.
The coal produced here is being used in Kothagudam Thermal Power Station, Paloncha, and will later be supplied to Bhadradri power plant at Manuguru and Yadadri Power in Nalgonda, which is now under construction.