TALCHER: With an aim to facilitate easy transportation of coal and making the coalfield pollution-free the coal major, Mahanadi Coalfields Limited, will be constructing a 49-km coal transport corridor in Talcher coalfields. “The Rs 290-crore road project will link pit heads of all the seven opencast projects to their nine respective railway sidings,” informed AK Singh, Director, Technical, (planning and project) of the company. The road is overdue in view of the burgeoning coal traffic in the colliery areas. A total of 80,000 trucks are engaged in the internal and external coal transport works in MCL, out of which Talcher coalfield itself has about half the total number of trucks.As it is very difficult to handle a large number of trucks on roads built decades back, the company decided to go ahead with a new project, sources said. The company has already sanctioned the money and MCL Board has approved the funds but a decision on the contract remains undecided. This will be done after the financial appraisal is obtained. As per the rule, financial appraisal is necessary by any independent financial institution for a tender of more than ` 150 crore, informed Singh.He, however, is hopeful that the company would expedite the road project within some months to complete it in about three years. The road will have a width of 18 meters and lighting system to cater to the drivers’ needs. This is the first such road project being taken up at Talcher while another one will be implemented at the Ib Valley field later on.
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