Indian Railways (IR) has approved the 6-km Barbil-Bolanikhadan doubling project of South Eastern Railway’s Chakradharpur Division at a completion cost of ₹122 crore.
The project will facilitate additional freight traffic of 8.9 MTPA on this stretch after commissioning of the project strengthening rail infrastructure on an important mineral movement corridor besides reducing delay to freight trains.
The 6-km Barbil-Bolanikhadan section has been identified under the “Energy, Mineral and Cement Corridor” of Indian Railways. The existing section is a single-line section and currently carries about 9 MTPA, comprising about 6 loaded rakes per day of originating iron ore traffic.
The traffic is entirely for high-grade ore and pellets moving from SAIL’s Bolani mines and private sidings (Rungta, Khatau Narbheram) to major steel plants and ports.Doubling this 6-km stretch ahead of the full realisation of SAIL’s mine expansion and port/plant capacity additions, will help to prevent the capacity constraints.