Question : Dalli Rajhara-Jagdalpur-Rawghat Railway Line

(a) the present status of under construction Dalli Rajhara-Jagdalpur-Rawghat railway line under East Coast Railway;
(b) the time when the construction work of the said railway line had started;
(c) the length of the railway line in kilometres constructed so far along with the length of railway line still to be constructed;
(d) whether the construction work of this railway line is going at a very slow pace and the people have been deprived of train facility as a result thereof; and
(e) the initial cost of this project along with its present cost with cost overrun and the factors responsible for the same?

MINISTER OF RAILWAYS, COMMERCE & INDUSTRY AND
CONSUMER AFFAIRS, FOOD & PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION

(SHRI PIYUSH GOYAL)

(a) to (e) A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.


STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (e) OF STARRED QUESTION NO.39 BY SHRI DEEPAK BAIJ TO BE ANSWERED IN LOK SABHA ON 03.02.2021 REGARDING DALLI RAJHARA-JAGDALPUR-RAWGHAT RAILWAY LINE

(a) to (c) Railway has taken up construction of Dallirajhara-Rowghat-Jagdalpur rail line project which was included in budget 1995-96 . A Memorandum of Understanding for sharing the cost with the Ministry of Steel and the State Government of Madhya Pradesh was finalized on 2nd April 1998. Project has been taken up in two phases. Phase-I –Dallirajhara-Rowghat (0- 95 km) and Phase-II-Rowghat-Jagdalpur(95- 235 km). Phase I between Dallirajhara-Rowghat (95km) is being executed by RVNL through funding by SAIL (Steel Authority of India Limited). Phase II between Rowghat – Jagdalpur (140 km) has been planned for execution through SPV named Bastar Railway Private Limited (BRPL) consisting of Government of Chhattisgarh, SAIL, National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) and IRCON. The present status of the project is as under:
(1) Work on Phase-I Dallirajhara-Rowghat (95 Km) portion was started in 2010. The work from Dallirajhara to Antagarh (60 Km) has been completed. 35 km work is balance between Antagarh to Rowghat.
(2) Phase-II Rowghat-Jagdalpur (140 Km) is being executed by IRCON through Special Purpose Vehicle(SPV), named Bastar Railway Private Limited (BRPL) . Land acquisition and forest land diversion for this phase is in process. Financial closure of project is in process.
d) The completion of any Railway project depends on various factors like quick land acquisition by State Government, forest clearance by forest department, statutory clearances from various authorities, geological and topographical conditions of area, law and order situation in the area of project site, number of working months in a year due to climatic considerations, cooperation of all parties for early completion of project etc. All these factors affect the completion time and cost of the project.
e) The initial MoU for execution of the project was signed on 2nd April 1998 amongst Ministry of Railways, Government of Madhya Pradesh, Steel Authority of India Limited and National Mineral Development Corporation. However the project could not be taken up for want of clearance under Forest Conservation Act, 1980 for the Rowghat Mining Projects of SAIL. Revised MoU was signed on 11th December 2007 amongst Ministry of Railways, Government of Chhattisgarh, Steel Authority of India Limited and National Mineral Development Corporation. The anticipated cost of the project in this period increased to ? 968.6 Cr at price level of 2004-05 from abstract cost of ? 369 Cr in 1995-96.
Phase-I- Dallirajhara-Rowghat (95 km) : The abstract cost of the project for Phase I was ? 134.96 Cr which increased to ? 304.3 Cr at the time of signing of MoU in Dec 2007. The latest anticipated cost of the project is ? 1622 Cr. Work on this portion was started in 2010. The work from Dallirajhara to Antagarh (60 Km) has been completed. Work has been taken up between km 60 to Km 80 and Km 93 to Km 95, where land is available. Work from km 80 to km 93 will be taken up after handing over of encumbrance free land to Railway by Government of Chhattisgarh. Government of Chhattisgarh has to handover forest land in 4.76 km length after tree cutting (1043 Nos.) and 27.54 ha private land in km 89-93. Project area is LWE (Left Wing Extremism) affected and work has to be taken up under dedicated Security cover. Daily mobilization and demobilization of man and machinery is required due to security reasons. This leaves only few daylight hours for working. Non handing over of complete encumbrance free land by State Government/Forest department, and law & order problem in the area has delayed the project. The above factors have led to time and cost overruns for this project.
Phase-II- Rowghat-Jagdalpur(140 Km)- The abstract cost of the project for Phase II was ?234.04 Cr and latest anticipated cost of this phase is ?2539 Crore. The project involves acquisition of 320 Ha private land, 47 Ha. Govt. land and 409 Ha. Forest land diversion and land acquisition is under process. Financial closure of project is in process. These issues have led to delay in execution.
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