PATNA: Chief minister (CM) Nitish Kumar on Tuesday inaugurated the newly built Rajgir-Tilaiya line under Danapur division of East Central Railway (ECR) at Rajgir station.
Nitish also flagged off a Rajgir-Tilaiya passenger train (544-545) which would run daily.
Lauding the railways for completing this project in a record time, Nitish said that the Rajgir-Tilaiya line was sanctioned during his tenure as railway minister. He had laid the foundation stone for the work. “Luckily, I got an opportunity to inaugurate the newly built line,” he said.
Nitish announced that the Rajgir-Tilaiya line would be extended up to Ranchi in future after completion of second phase of work on the Tilaiya-Koderma and Koderma-Ranchi route. This would provide an alternative route for passengers for reaching Ranchi. Besides, this route has the maximum rate of return (14.5 per cent) as far as revenue goes.
The Rajgir-Tilaiya line would prove to be a boon for passengers as well as for the railways from revenue point of view, Nitish said.
According to Nitish, the new route would help the railways to bring coal directly from Koderma to the Barh NTPC thermal power plant, which would be made functional in 2013. He said that the Barh thermal power would get about 20 rakes daily laden with super quality of coal from Jharkhand through Rajgir-Tilaiya route. However, the railways would run about 36 rakes daily after increase in the capacity of the Barh thermal power plant. Earlier, it was supposed to generate about 1,903 MW. But now it would generate around 3,223 MW as its capacity is being increased, Nitish said.
The CM stressed on completion of Neora-Daniyawan-Biharsharif-Sheikhpura line on priority basis as it would be a separate third line for the movements of goods trains. Thus, it would lessen the huge traffic pressure, particularly on the mainline section of Danapur division, he said.
Nitish praised the efforts of railway minister Mamata Banerjee to streamline the functioning of the railways across the country. He said that the railways is the lifeline for the common people and they must travel with valid tickets only. Their cooperation is a must for all-round development of the railways, he said.
Earlier, ECR GM A P Mishra welcomed the guests and dwelt at length on the importance of Rajgir-Tilaiya line. He said that the new line was completed at a cost of about Rs 180 crore and stretched up to 46 km.
The GM announced that the run of Danapur-Rajgir passenger train has been extended up to Tilaiya now and it would run daily with the load combination of 12 bogies.