Rourkela, March 7: The third rail line between Rourkela–Jharsuguda section under South Eastern Railway was inaugurated by Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha on March 5.
The double line section between Rourkela and Jharsuguda on the Howrah-Nagpur route has become over saturated with the present level of traffic averaging 73.8 trains daily each way against a capacity of 58 trains with maintenance block, Sinha said while inaugurating the project.
With the growth of traffic, especially due to coming up of mega power and steel projects in the nearby area the capacity utilization of this section is projected to jump from the present level of 127 per cent to 165 per cent that threatens to affect adversely the operational efficiency requiring advance action to augment capacity, he said.
The new line between Kharagpur-Bondamunda and Jharsuguda- Champa section will necessitate augmentation of line capacity between Rourkela and Jharsuguda to avoid bottleneck and derive full benefit in the operation, he said.
The 101 km line will run parallel to the existing alignment with over 130 minor and 12 major bridges –the longest being the Brahmani bridge near Panposh.
The outlay for this project in 2015-2016 was Rs 44 crore which has been increased to Rs 103 crore in 2016-2017. The contract for earth work and minor bridges has already been awarded in January this year as per source.
Sinha also reviewed works on various rail projects with the GM – SER and other high officials of SER ( South Eastern Railway) at Rourkela.
