Reader Martand Deo: Khurda Rd – Bolangir New Broad Gauge Line – Why it Can’t be made like Hasan- Mangalore Rail Line.
Balangir, Bouda, Kandhamala, KBK Plus district cluster, Khordha, Nayagarha, Railways June 9th. 2007, 12:32pmReader Martand Deo suggests that there should be attempt to build the Khurda-Balangir line through PPP similar to the way the Hasan- Mangalore Rail Line is being built. His points are:
1. With the active initiative of Karnatak State Governament Hassan Mangalore Rail Development Company Limited (HSMDC) is formulated, along with this New Mangalore Port and Mineral Enterprise Limited, K-RIDE joins the hand to move this project forward, with the stake as follows
a. Government of Karnataka 40%
b. Ministry of Railways 40%
c New Mangalore Port Trust 9%
d. Mineral Enterprises Limited 9%
e. K-RIDE 2%2. To have a better representation and smoother functionality HRMDC comes up with one Chief Executive Officer and assisted by Professional Board of directors from Government of Karnataka, Ministry of Railways, participant companies and other users of that
region .3. This Rail Line also have greater challenges, which crosses Western Ghats passes through 55 kms of ghat section, on construction activities, train operations and maintenance of the
line, but a greater will power of karanatak finally made it.4. Govt. Of Orissa is spending a lot in the name of KBK development, if it Could allocate some fund for this rail line, the development can be much more than the current trend, As the recent World Bank Survey says if one rupee is invested in terms of road, Rail infrastructure development, poverty elimination can be done 7 times better than others.
5. For details how Hasan- Mangalore rail line project is implemented, the following web Site can be visited. http://www.hmrdc.com/
I do not know about Karnataka, but the government of Orissa is involved in several Railway line construction through PPP. The two that are approved and underway are Haridaspur-Paradip and Angul-Sukinda. Then in their priority would be Gunupur-Theruvali (for shorter access to Gopalpur port), Bhadrakh-Dhamara (being built by DPCL), Gopalpur port connectivity and Vedanta University connectivity; followed by any other port connectivity for any other port that gets built such as Kirtania, Astarnga etc. Regardless, some way has to be figured out to get Khurda-Balangir connectivity done as soon as possible. A Business standard article in April lists some of the PPP driven plans of Orissa government.
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June 10th, 2007 at 11:16 pm
Although its a nice proposal by Mr Deo, PPP may have practical difficulty in Balangir -Khordha railway route. Because unlike other cases in Karnataka and Orissa, in this case there is no industry (or mining sector) and/or port in Balangir region who would be interested in it.
In Mangalore case, the port trust has an interest in railway transportation so are the cases for mining companies in Orissa.
On the other hand politically we have not yet reached to a situation where any private company would be interested to fund railyway totally depending on public transportation revenues. It would also be expensive for travellers basically for poor people who live in backward region like KBK. So we must ask state and central governments to fund this route on their own in a priority basis.
In KBK region under PPP, if the state government take pro-initiative this route might have a chance.
Berhampur to Gopalpur port or in a long route, Gunpur – Ramagiri Udayagiri – Digapahandi -Berhampur – Gopalpur as ther are few industries (such as Vedanta, Utkal etc) in this region who may be interested to have a direct port connectivity.
Vedanta group might take interest in Balangir – Khordha route but the Gopalpur route would be commercially more beneficial for the company. Even it considers Khordha route in that case Vedanta may prefer a shorter distance via Lanjigarh Road – Phulbani – Purunakatak-Khodha Road rather via Balangir for its own commercial interest.