Undertaken 13 rail projects for multimodal connectivity: Coal Ministry

In line with the goal of PM Gati Shakti, the coal ministry on Thursday said it has undertaken 13 rail projects to develop multimodal connectivity and identified missing infrastructure gaps for each project.

Four railway projects are successfully mapped in the National Master Plan (NMP) portal under high impact projects which will be developed in Jharkhand and Odisha. These will enable movement of coal with rapid logistics and wider connectivity for all the commercial miners, the ministry said in a statement.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Gati Shakti- Nation Master Plan for infrastructure development in October last year with the objective of bringing different ministries together and for integrated planning and coordinated implementation of infrastructure connectivity projects.

It will incorporate the infrastructure schemes of various ministries and state governments and will also leverage technology extensively, including spatial planning tools.

For cleaner environment in coal transportation, the Centre has given momentum to rail evacuation and is also initiating new efforts to gradually move away from road movement of coal in country.

Planned construction of new broad gauge rail lines in greenfield coal bearing areas, extending the rail links to newer loading points and doubling and tripling the rail lines in some cases will enhance rail capacity considerably, it added.