PATNA: CM Nitish Kumar will inaugurate the newly built Rajgir-Tilaiya line under Danapur division of East Central Railway (ECR) at a function at Rajgir station at 9.30 am on Tuesday.
According to sources, this new line is important for the railways as it will facilitate it to bring coal directly from Koderma to Bihar. Barh Thermal Power Plant, which would be ready in March, 2013, also stands to benefit from this line as goods trains carrying coal wagons could directly reach the thermal power plant from Tilaiya, sources said.
Stretching over 46.5 km, the Ragjir-Tilaiya line has been constructed at a cost of about Rs 181 core. It was sanctioned by the railway ministry during the year 2001-2002. Important from traffic operation point of view, this line was completed in February.
According to ECR CPRO Dilip Kumar, the commissioner of railway safety (CRS) R P Yadav, who has inspected the line, had already given his clearance for the traffic movement on this route.
The CPRO said that the railways has already posted employees at each new station falling under the Rajgir-Tilaiya route. There are three stations and four halts on this particular route. Besides, this route is dotted with four big bridges, 13 small bridges, one road over bridge (ROB), eight road under bridges (RUB) and 15 unmanned railway level crossings, he said, adding the railways has already issued directives to maintain foolproof safety measures at these railway crossing gates.
The Rajgir-Tilaiya route falls under three districts of Bihar namely Nalanda, Gaya and Nawada. The district administration concerned has been informed about the commissioning of the new line on Tuesday, sources said.
Meanwhile, the railways has been eagerly awaiting clearance from the Union forest department to extend this line up to Hazaribag-Koderma route so that it could be directly linked to coal loading place Koderma to facilitate loading of coal directly from Jharkhand for the Barh thermal power, sources said.
Nitish will leave for Rajgir by a special train from Patna Junction on Tuesday morning along with senior officials of ECR. He will also inaugurate two road over bridges (ROBs) at Agamkuan and Sachivalya in Patna the same day in the afternoon. ECR GM A P Mishra, who is also South Eastern Railway GM, will also attend the function.