Railways digs 840-km-long tunnel on new Talcher-Bimalagarh rail project

Bhubaneswar: As Union Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw advised officials to take necessary action and coordinate with other agencies, so that the long pending sanctioned work can be completed at the earliest, the Talcher-Bimalagarh new Broad Gauge Rail Link Project (149.78Km) achieved a major milestone.

The engineering team of ECoR construction wing conducted final detonation to force the breakthrough in the 840 M long tunnel in Baruan Hill between Sunakhani and Samal Stations of the ongoing project, which was sanctioned in the year 2003-04.

The project has faced major roadblocks due to slow progress of land acquisition in Deogarh and Sundergarh districts. The ECoR administration is in constant touch with the State and District administration to expedite the land acquisition work in the above two districts, so that, construction of this project from Bimalagarh side will be carried on.

Railways have completed and commissioned 20 kms of rail line between Talcher Station and Sunakhani Railway Station in on-going new rail line between Talcher and Bimalagarh in December, 2019. Work is going on for another 16.30 km stretch between Sunakhani and Parabil in Angul district. Out of 149.78Kms stretch of the total project length, about 79 kms falls in Angul District, Deogarh has about 32 kms and Sundargarh has about 39 kms stretch.

Completion of railway projects depends on various factors like early land acquisition, forest clearance, shifting of infringing utilities, statutory clearances from various authorities, geological and topographical conditions of area, law and order situation in the project site, etc., apart from climatic conditions.

Once the project is completed, the link will reduce the distance between Rourkela and Talcher by about 126 kms. This line will help movement of export quality iron ore through Ports. This project will boost the economic development of interior districts Angul, Deogarh and Sunargarh of Odisha.