Union Cabinet approves third line between Khurda Road, Vizianagaram

Divisional Railway Manager Saurabh Prasad has said that the Union Cabinet on Wednesday has approved seven railway projects, worth ₹32,512 crore, to be taken up in different parts of the country.

Addressing a press conference on Wednesday evening, the DRM said that the construction of the third line between Nergundi–Barang and Khurda Road–Vizianagaram section. He said that the section was oversaturated with line capacity utilisation of 137% in some parts and thus became a bottleneck for train operations.

The estimated cost of the project is Rs 5,618 crore and the length of the third line in Odisha would be 184 km while the total length of the project is 385 km. Bhadrak, Jajpur, Khordha, Cuttack, Ganjam would be covered in Odisha while in Andhra Pradesh, Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam over an extent of 201 km, he said.

As many as six important bridges would be constructed and these include on river Birup (488M), Mahanadi (2,096M), Kothjori (822M), Rusikulya (457M), Bansadhara (410M), Kuakhai (822M), besides 86 Major Bridges and 847 number of Minor Bridge.

Saurabh Prasad also said that the industries in the region would be benefited a great deal. In Odisha, domestic coal to south India through all rail route from Talcher, coal from Paradeep and Gopalpur ports to steel plants, raw material (clinker, pet coke etc) for cement plants from Paradeep port, export of steel from various steel plants, and faster movement of iron ore from mines in Keonjhar district to various ports would be facilitated.