Construction of 3rd & 4th line between Salegaon and Budhapank (2×85 km) is a coal & port connectivity project for transhipment of coal from Mahanadi coalfields at Talcher, one of the largest India’s coal reserve to Paradeep port as well as to the power houses in South India.
Its progress is being monitored by PMO. Expansion of this rail infrastructure project has been necessitated because existing doubling is heavily saturated due to ever-increasing coaching as well as goods traffic. Salegaon to Rajathgarh (2×23 km) portion is the patch of the project consisting of 5 stations, which has been targeted for commissioning in June-2021.
Electronic interlocking with complete yard remodelling of Charbatia yard has been commissioned on 19.9.2020 at 2.25 hrs successfully and with this 2 out of 5 stations have been commissioned. More than 200 people were working for last two months against many odds, Covid-19 being the gravest of all. Due to full dedication of supervisors, officers and able leadership of CAO/Con, this huge task was possible successfully. Rajathgarh yard and then Salegaon yard have been planned to be commissioned respectively in sequence very soon. Machhapur station yard shall be commissioned along with commissioning of the sections between Salegaon and Rajathgarh in June-2021.
Timelines for the commissioning of sections beyond Rajathgarh and up to Budhapank have been decided. To achieve these targets, the cooperation of state government is extremely essential in handing over private, government and forest land at the earliest to the railway.
