CM Sai Inaugurates 2 Rail Lines in Chhattisgarh, Flags Off Passenger Train Services

Raipur: Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai on Tuesday said Railway infrastructure in the country has witnessed significant growth since 2014 as he inaugurated two Rail lines in the state and flagged off passenger train services on the newly-completed sections.He also laid the foundation stone for an electric locomotive maintenance facility to be built in Raipur during an event held at the city's Railway station.

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw joined the programme virtually from New Delhi.

The new Rail lines were the Tadoki-Rowghat section and the Abhanpur-Kurud broad-gauge line.

On the occasion, Sai also flagged off passenger train services connecting Rowghat with Raipur and the state capital with Kurud.

Addressing the event, the CM noted Railway infrastructure in the country has witnessed significant development since Prime Minister Narendra Modi assumed office in 2014.

During the Congress-led UPA government (2004-14), Chhattisgarh received an annual Railway budget allocation of around Rs 300 crore, which had increased nearly 24 times to more than Rs 7,000 crore under the BJP rule at the Centre, he maintained.

"It is a matter of great fortune for Chhattisgarh that two new Railway lines and train services have been inaugurated today," Sai said, thanking Modi and Vaishnaw for these projects.

The Rowghat-Raipur train service had been a long-pending demand, he said, adding the new Rail connectivity would benefit people in remote areas.

Earlier, the Raipur-Dhamtari vias Kurud route had a narrow-gauge line, while the broad-gauge network had now been extended to Kurud. Work on extending the line further to Dhamtari was underway, he said.

Sai underlined that several major Railway projects had been sanctioned in the state, including the Parmalkasa-Kharsia corridor, the 182-km Ambikapur (Chhattisgarh)-Barwadih (Jharkhand) project, and the Rowghat-Jagdalpur line.

The CM said 32 Railway stations in Chhattisgarh are being developed into world-class facilities with eight of them already completed and dedicated to the nation.

Virtually addressing the event, Vaishnaw emphasised the Centre has been working to connect those areas that had remained outside the Railway network for decades.

With the inauguration of new section (Tadoki-Rowghat), Raipur has been connected to Rowghat via Dallirajhra and the link will be further extended to Jagdalpur, and then to Koraput in adjoining Odisha and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh," he said.

The Railway minister said CM Sai has decided that land acquisition for the Rowghat-Jagdalpur Railway line will be taken up on priority.

Around Rs 57,000 crore worth of Rail works are underway in Chhattisgarh, and the state had achieved 100 per cent Railway electrification. There will be no shortage of funds for Railway projects in the BJP-ruled state, he insisted.

The electric locomotive maintenance facility for modern 9,000-horsepower locomotives, whose foundation stone was laid on Tuesday, would come up in Raipur, he stated.

Vaishnaw said these powerful and modern locomotives are of international standards and could also be exported in the future.

The 95-km-long Dallirajhara-Rowghat project was completed last month with the laying of tracks on the final 17.5-km stretch between Tadoki and Rowghat, officials said.

Passenger train services were already operational on the 77.5-km Dallirajhara-Tadoki section. Operations on the newly completed Tadoki-Rowghat stretch commenced on Tuesday with the flagging off of the train service, they said.

The single-line, electrified broad-gauge section is part of the approximately 240-km Dallirajhara-Rowghat-Jagdalpur project, a joint venture involving the Chhattisgarh government, the National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC), the Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) and the Railways, they said.

The project is expected to improve connectivity to remote areas of the Bastar region, once considered a Maoist stronghold, and facilitate the transportation of iron ore from Rowghat mines to SAIL's Bhilai Steel Plant in Durg district, they said.

It will also improve access to education, healthcare and employment while facilitating the transportation of agricultural produce and other commercial goods, officials noted.