Big ticket coal, port projects in Odisha under Prime Minister’s Office fail to move- The New Indian Express

By Express News Service

BHUBANESWAR: Even as the State Government claims that big ticket projects monitored under Prime Minister’s office as well as project monitoring group (PMG) of the Union Cabinet secretariat are sailing smoothly, ground realities seem to be different.

Cases in point are the 3rd and 4th rail line projects between Budhapank and Salegaon which were  taken up for review at the CCI PMG meeting here on Wednesday.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave its approval for the lines between Budhapank and Salegaon via Rajathgarh railway line of 85 km each with a cost of Rs 1,172.92 crore in November 2015. 

A coal and port connectivity project for transhipment of coal from Mahanadi Coalfields at Talcher, one of the largest coal reserves of the country, to Paradip port as well as to the power houses in southern states, was originally scheduled for completion within three years time.

Even as the country is facing acute shortage of coal and a majority of thermal power stations are running at plant load factor (PLF) much below their generating capacity due to coal scarcity, the two rail line projects are moving at a snail’s pace. The revised timeline of June 2021 for completion of the project has already passed.

As per the original schedule, the Salegaon-Charbatia (9.86 km), Charbatia-Gurudijhatia (16.19 km), Gurudijhatia-Machharpur (13.98 km) and Machhapur-Rajathgarh (25.9 km) sections were to be completed and commissioned by December 2018. Timeline for commissioning the 3rd and 4th line between Jarapada and Budhapanka (44+47 km) was set for February 2019.

The Prime Minister reviewed the progress of these commercially important lines along with other projects of the State in 2020 as not a single section of the projects could be commissioned in time. Sources familiar with the projects said the project implementing agencies have failed to utilise the funds allocated in each financial year. More than 50 per cent of the annual grants have been surrendered. 

The projects suffer due to frequent transfer of engineers in charge of projects of East Coast Railway. The incumbent Chief Engineer (Project) and the Deputy Chief Engineer are the fifth officers to be posted in the last six years.

Frequent transfer of engineers and lack of monitoring at the zonal level have severely hit the planning process and execution, the sources maintained.