Railway Board highlights need for dedicated coal corridor

Reportedly, a study by the Railway Board has emphasised on the country’s requirement of dedicated coal corridors. This is on account of growing power demand in India. With the majority of the coal being transported from Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh to the north, west and south-east of the country, there is a need to develop tracks that are used exclusively for coal movement on these routes. These corridors will be in line with dedicated freight corridors (DFC). According to the study, the east coast DFC and the eastern part of the east-west DFC should be developed on priority in order to provide access to coal transportation from Talacher to ports dotting the eastern coastline. In order to address the growing coal demand, the traffic, transportation and business research unit of the Railway Board had identified and listed 615 priority projects in an earlier report. These projects covered 132 projects (labelled super critical-I) with a target date of completion in fiscal 2024-25, 184 Super Critical-II projects with a target date of completion in 2026-27, and 299 Critical projects with a target date of completion in 2027-28.