WASHINGTON: Indian Port Rail Corporation Ltd (IPRCL) is looking at enhancing port connectivity and evacuation while paving the way for seamless integration of port-railway system with the Indian Railways network, government said today. As a joint venture between major ports and Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL), “in the coming years, IPRCL, as a dedicated SPV will continue to develop railways as a mode of transport in the port sector”, the Shipping Ministry said in a statement. It said IPRCL will strengthen the second pillar of Sagarmala, the flagship programme of government which has four pillars — port modernisation, port connectivity and evacuation, port-led industrialisation and coastal community development. Under the Ministry of Shipping, the programme aims at promoting port-led development along India’s 14,500 km long coastline. As part of Sagarmala, more than 400 projects, at an estimated infrastructure investment of more than Rs 7 lakh crore, have been identified across port modernisation & new port development; port connectivity enhancement, port-linked industrialisation and coastal community development. These projects will be implemented by relevant Central Ministries, State Governments, Ports and other agencies primarily through the private or PPP mode.
IPRCL will strengthen ‘port connectivity and evacuation’ through various dedicated projects. The Salegoan-Pardip dedicated freight corridor model will be replicated in future in other port connectivity projects. IPRCL held its first Annual General Meeting here yesterday. In 2015-16, 20 railway projects were taken up across eight Major Ports. Of this, 11 works with total project cost of Rs 7,636.15 crores were for preparation of Feasibility and Detailed Project Report (DPR) and nine works with total cost of Rs 643.77 crore were for project execution.
IPRCL has completed the pre-feasibility study of a heavy haul rail corridor from Ib Valley-Talcher to Paradip and Dhamra to evacuate coal mines of Mahanadi Coal Ltd (MCL) to the ports for shipping them to the southern states of India through the coastal route. “On the above mentioned corridor IPRCL is taking up the third and fourth line from Salegoan to Paradip that will be dedicated to freight. The development of this project will give a major fillip to the government’s initiative to promote multi-modal logistics and coastal shipping,” the statement said. The company has already started rail infrastructure modernisation in Kolkata, Vishakhapatnam, Chennai, Tuticorin and New Mangalore Ports. Rail infrastructure expansion and modernisation works are likely to commence from April 2017 in Kandla and JNPT ports and in Haldia Dock Complex (HDC). The company has also taken up the task of preparation of DPR for Rail and Road connectivity of the proposed Major Port at Colachel (Enayam) in Tamil Nadu.
