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Govt’s proposed railway links to transport coal may get derailed

Proposal to move coal from mines to power plants faces hurdle over land acquisition and high construction costs

Three key railway links proposed for moving coal from mines in Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh to fuel-starved power plants are at the risk of being derailed for reasons that are all too familiar in infrastructure projects—land acquisition difficulties and high construction costs. There is an additional problem, too: restrictions on the movement of coal by road for loading on railway rakes.

The government has plans to spend Rs 4,000 crore on improving rail connectivity for transport of coal, a substantive portion of which would go towards these three train links. Accelerating the construction of critical coal connectivity lines is the mainstay of the government’s plan to add 100 million tonnes of incremental freight traffic to the railways a year and kickstart idling power plants.

Railway minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda, in his railway budget speech on 8 July, said the government wanted to speed up work on the 90.7-km Tori-Shivpur-Kathautia line (Jharkhand), 53-km Jharsuguda-Barpalli-Sardega line (Odisha) and 180-km Bhupdevpur-Korichapar-Korba (Chattisgarh) line as part of the plan. The importance of such rail links can be gauged from the fact that around 45,634 megawatts (MW) of thermal power generation capacity—nearly enough to meet the peak electricity demand (June) of northern states such as Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttarakhand—is lying idle for lack of coal Indian Railways moves around 52% of the coal that is mined in the country—a share that’s expected to rise to 58% in 2016-17.

But, according to government documents reviewed by Mint; the three links are beset by myriad problems. In the case of the Tori-Shivpur-Kathautia line, which is to transport coal from North Karanpura coal fields in Jharkhand, half the land in the 0 to 44 km stretch is “yet to be made available by state government of Jharkhand”, even as “works have been awarded in this stretch and contractors are threatening to go for legal action against railways”.

Issues raised by the state forest department has held up tree felling. There are also restrictions laid down by the ministry of environment and forests on movement of trains between 12am and 5am and on the number of stations where they can stop, “which is going to adversely affect the economics of operation”. Similarly, the Bhupdevpur-Korichapar-Korba line, which is to move coal from the Raigarh coalfield in Chhattisgarh, has run into trouble over land acquisition.

The Jharsuguda-Barpalli-Sardega line, which is to move coal from Ib Valley in Odisha, has come up against restrictions on the transport of coal by road imposed by local authorities because of protests by local villagers. This, combined with weak road infrastructure, has resulted in the reduction of loading capacity of coal rakes. Also, the per km investment for laying of railway track is estimated to be Rs.40 crore, which is very high, according to the documents reviewed. This problem pertains only for the Odisha line. Of India’s installed power generation capacity of 249,488.31MW, 60% or 1,48,478.39MW is coal-based.

The production of coal has been unable to match the growing demand for fuel in a country where the power sector consumes nearly 78% of the domestic output of the mineral. Concerned about the danger of such issues spiralling out of control and derailing the projects, the government plans to form a monitoring group headed by the chairman of the Railway Board, with representations from the ministries of railways, coal, environment and forests and the respective state governments. An Indian Railways spokesperson, in an emailed response, said, “Your version somehow is more or less correct,” and asked Mint to refer to a 12 June press statement.

“These three projects are progressing slowly due to land acquisition and forest clearance issues at the state level,” railway ministry said in the 12 June statement. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which leads the new government, made energy security a part of its poll plank. The Narendra Modi-led government’s energy security plans include harnessing renewable sources such as solar energy, biomass and wind power along with coal, gas, hydropower and nuclear power to bring about an “energy revolution” in the country.

Queries emailed to the coal ministry spokesperson remained unanswered. Piyush Goyal, India’s minister in charge of power, coal, and new and renewable energy, admitted to problems in Parliament last week. “But there are issues relating to the Railways where I need your support. I need your support to sort out issues in Jharkhand and Odisha. If two rail links in Jharkhand and Odisha,...., are sorted out and some land acquisition and forest clearance is locally cleared, we can transport nearly 100 million tonnes every year. Look at the relief it will give to India,” Goyal told the Rajya Sabha on 6 August. While India’s power generation capacity grew by 60% over the last five years, coal production only grew by around 6%. The country mined 532mt in 2009-10, 533mt in 2010-11 and 540mt in 2011-12. Production was 557mt in 2012-13 and 564mt in 2013-14.

Source: www.livemint.com