Honorable Minister of State (I/C) (Communications) and Minister of State, (Railways), Govt. of India on Friday dedicated Tori-Balumath new rail line and Balumath- Central Coalfields Limited(CCL) Siding to the Nation. The Tori-Shivpur rail line project is funded by CCL, one of the subsidiaries of Coal India Limited (CIL).

 Flagging off the train through Video Lonk from Rail Bhavan today, Shri Manoj Sinha said “need for streamlining transportation of nearly 170 million tonnes/per day of Coal had been felt for long from Jharkhand’s Latehar region. Since 2005-06, the Tori-Shivpuri 44 km new railway line had been approved. Till 2013-14 the progress was quite slow and only Rs. 145 Crore could be spent. Subsequent to its inclusion in Hon’ble Prime Minister’s PRAGATI portal, the project work was fast-tracked and as a result, 19.3 km Tori-Balumath section has been completed with an expenditure of about Rs. 1063 Crore. The revised sanctioned cost of this project is 1589 crore rupees. Out of this stretch today the 19.3 km run from Tori to Balumuth has been commissioned due to the sincere commitment of Ministry of Railways and Jharkhand Government”.

The Tori-Shivpur new line (44.0 Km) is being constructed for coal evacuation from Amrapali and Magadh coal mines of Latehar and Chatra districts of Jharkhand. This area has huge coal deposit. Between Tori to Balumath there are 3 stations, 5 major bridges, 7 ROBs and 39 minor bridges. As per initial estimate, CCL proposed to evacuate total 80 rakes of coal daily work from various coal blocks. Two sidings are being developed by CCL to connect Amrapali and Magadh coal mines to rail network. 

Commissioning of Tori-Balumath rail line and Balumath-CCL Siding will help to evacuate 5 to 6 rakes of coal every day in first phase which will result in annual offtake of 6-7 million tonne (MT). On completion of the complete stretch Tori-Shivpur-Kathotia rail line, around 100 MT of coal will be evacuated annually from North Karanpura Coalfield of Jharkhand.

Hon'ble MP (Chata) Shri Sunil Singh expressed gratitude towards the team of Coal India / CCL and Railways on the completion of this much awaited project. He said that this project will not only increase the development of Jharkhand but also the Eastern India, as well as increase in rail connectivity and business activities of the region.

Speaking on the occasion Chairman, Coal India/ CMD, CCL Shri Gopal Singh said that today a dream that was seen 18 years ago has been realized under guidance of Hon’ble Minister of Railways & Coal, Shri Piyush Goyal. He appreciated the combine effort of Coal India/ CCL and Indian Railways to ensure that this project see the light of the day. Railway is a symbol of development and this project will benefit the common people, Shri Singh emphasized. Shri Singh said that this project will not only increase the coal production and dispatch but will lead to opening new mines and hence will generate employment for the youths, which is paramount.

It is to be noted that coal evacuation and transportation is as important as coal production. Lack of infrastructure, with regards to coal dispatch/transportation often leads to spontaneous heating, coal fire and other related losses in coal stock. For this reason, CCL management had to limit the production at its Magadha and Amrapali project whose capacity is was 70 and 35 million tons respectively. With the execution of this project, both these projects will be operated at its optimum capacity in this fiscal year and particularly in the next fiscal year. Also, with the completion of the Tori-Shivpur project, other projects of CCL like Sanghamitra, Pachara, which has a total capacity of about 47 MT, will also augment the coal production and thus reduce the depanedancy on imported coal. The successful completion of this project would have not been possible with active support of each and every stakeholder. On one hand, while the villagers made land available for the project, public/union representatives have also extended their full support.

Salient features of the Tori-Balumath-Shivpur Project is

On the occassion, MLA (Latehar) Shri Prakash Ram, Shri Manoj Kumar Akhauri, DRM, Dhanbad Division, Shri Anoop Kumar, AGM, ECR, Shri B Chaudhary, CAO, ECR, Shri Salil Jha, COOM, ECR, Shri AK Mishra, Director (Technical), CCL, Shri RS Mahapatra, Director (Personnel), CCL and dignitaries were present.