Mahanadi Coal Railway to go full steam ahead on Phase-II

13 Jul 2022 CW Team

The Coal Ministry has identified the construction of Mahanadi Coal Railway Ltd (MCRL) Phase I & II as a high Impact project under PM Gatishakti. MCRL is a dedicated corridor to evacuate fuel from the Talcher Coalfields under Mahanadi Coalfield Ltd.

Talcher is one of the largest coalfields, with about 52 BT of coal resources, or 15% of total prognosticated coal resources in the country. Of the available resources in Talcher Coalfield, more than 63% (33 BT) lies at less than 300 metres depth, presenting significant potential for open cast mining.

Talcher Coalfields has produced more than 95 million tonnes of coal during FY22 and is likely to produce about 200 mt in FY 2024-25 and about 300 by FY 2030. To ensure efficient coal evacuation, construction of the rail line was started in a phased manner. Mahanadi Coal Railway was incorporated in 2015 with a 64% share held by Mahanadi Coalfield (MCL), 26% by IRCON and 10% by the Industrial Development Corporation of Odisha (IDCO).

The alignment of the project traverses Angul district in Odisha. MCRL Phase-I (Angul-Balram) of 14 km length is expected to be operationalised by this year, and MCRL Phase-II (54 km) is expected to be commissioned by December 2025.

Also Read:
Talks on for easier ways to transport eastern India’s coal
Maharashtra ranks third in terms of coal buffer stocks

Infrastructure Transport

12 Mar 2026

Kavach 4.0 Commissioned on Delhi–Mumbai and Delhi–Howrah

"Kavach version four has been commissioned on 1,452 route km, covering the high density Delhi–Mumbai and Delhi–Howrah corridors. The rollout included laying 8,570 km of optical fibre, installation of 1,100 telecom towers, deployment of trackside equipment over 6,776 RKm and establishment of 767 station data centres. Trackside implementation has been taken up on 24,427 RKm covering Golden Quadrilateral, Golden Diagonal and High Density Network sections. The programme aims to strengthen signalling and train protection on key routes.Kavach is an indigenously developed automatic train protecti..

Railways Advance Kalyan–Murbad Line And Mumbai Capacity Expansion

"Indian Railways is advancing multiple rail infrastructure projects in Maharashtra, including the sanctioned Kalyan–Murbad new line and sizable investments under the Mumbai Urban Transport Project and the Mumbai–Ahmedabad High Speed Rail project. The Kalyan–Murbad 28 km new line has been sanctioned at Rs 8.36 billion (bn) on a 50:50 cost-sharing basis with the Government of Maharashtra and has been declared a Special Railway Project for land acquisition; proposals covering 214 hectares are at various stages of acquisition. Budgetary outlay for projects falling fully or partly in Maharash..

Parliamentary Panel Flags Funding Gaps in Heavy Industries

"The Department-Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Industry (Rajya Sabha) presented its 332nd report on the Demands for Grants 2026-27 of the Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI). Figures converted from crore and lakh are expressed in million (mn). The Budget Estimates 2026-27 for the Ministry stand at Rs 79,399 mn against a projected requirement of Rs 94,843.2 mn, a shortfall of about 16 per cent, with revenue at Rs 79,370.8 mn and capital compressed to Rs 28.2 mn from Rs 5,020 mn.The committee flagged recurring BE-to-RE compression and declining revised estimate utilisation, and calle..