Singareni Collieries Company Limited today paid Rs 6.38 crore to South Central Railway (SCR) for the Bhadrachalam Road-Sattupalli New Railway Line. Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) Chairman and Managing Director Sutirtha Bhattacharya called on SCR General Manager G N Asthana here and presented a cheque of Rs 6.38 crore towards conducting the final location survey for the Bhadrachalam Road-Sattupalli New Railway Line, a release from SCR here said. The Bhadrachalam Road-Sattupalli New Railway Line is an important Project mainly planned to facilitate smooth movement of coal from Singareni Colleries. SCCL is having three Open Cast Projects in Sattupalli Area Jalagam Vengala Rao (JVR) Open Cast-I, JVR Open Cast-II and Kistaram Open Cast Project. The expected production from these three mines is about six Million Tonnes per annum. The distance between JVR OCP and nearest SCCL Coal Handling Plant (Rudrampur) is about 55 Kms. It is not possible to transport six Million Tonnes of coal to the nearest rail head by road. Moreover, the Ministry of Environment & Forests has put a special condition that ‘No Coal Transportation shall be undertaken by Road’ from JVR OCP-II. Hence, this railway line is essential for movement of coal produced from JVR Group of mines. Due to change of policy in laying railway lines, Railways requested SCCL to bear the entire cost of the Project except land and transfer the same to Railways at no cost.
The project was sanctioned by Ministry of Railways in 2010-11 at an estimated cost of Rs 337.50 crore. UNI