Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai inaugurated the Tadoki-Rowghat and Abhanpur-Kurud railway lines on Tuesday and flagged off passenger services connecting Rowghat with Raipur and Raipur with Kurud. He also laid the foundation stone for an electric locomotive maintenance facility in Raipur. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw joined the programme virtually from New Delhi.

Sai said the state’s annual railway budget allocation had increased from around Rs. 3 bn during the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government between 2004 and 2014 to more than Rs. 70 bn under the BJP-led government at the Centre. He said the new Rowghat-Raipur service would improve access for residents of remote areas and address a long-standing demand.

The Raipur-Dhamtari route through Kurud previously had a narrow-gauge line. The broad-gauge network has now reached Kurud, while work is under way to extend it to Dhamtari. Other projects sanctioned in the state include the Parmalkasa-Kharsia corridor, the 182-km Ambikapur-Barwadih line connecting Chhattisgarh with Jharkhand, and the Rowghat-Jagdalpur route.

Vaishnaw said 32 railway stations in Chhattisgarh were being upgraded, with eight already completed. He added that the Tadoki-Rowghat section had connected Raipur with Rowghat through Dallirajhra, with plans to extend the link to Jagdalpur, Koraput in Odisha and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. Sai has prioritised land acquisition for the Rowghat-Jagdalpur line.

Railway projects worth around Rs. 570 bn are being implemented in the state, which has achieved complete railway electrification. The planned Raipur maintenance facility will service modern 9,000-horsepower electric locomotives. Officials said the 95-km Dallirajhara-Rowghat project was completed after tracks were laid on the final 17.5-km Tadoki-Rowghat stretch, while passenger services had already begun on the 77.5-km Dallirajhara-Tadoki section.

The electrified single-line broad-gauge section forms part of the approximately 240-km Dallirajhara-Rowghat-Jagdalpur project, involving the Chhattisgarh government, National Mineral Development Corporation, Steel Authority of India and the Railways. The network is expected to support iron ore movement from Rowghat mines to the Bhilai Steel Plant and improve access to education, healthcare, employment and markets across the Bastar region.