Railway projects in AP, Orissa get clearance

The East Coast Railway (ECoR) has got clearance for 84 projects to be set up in the private sector Out of this 56 are under its Khurda division, while 15 are in Waltair and 13 in Sambalpur. Also, 41 projects are in various stages of completion. According to the railways. with this clearance, the authorities of the projects will set up private railway sidings to facilitate movement of raw materials and finished products.
The railways will bear part of the cost of the sidings depending on the guaranteed cargo support, especially the cost of superstructure, which are called assisted sidings. Almost every new siding is being set up as assisted sidings, said ECoR sources.
The cost of a siding comes to about Rs 3.5 crore to Rs 6 crore per km. This is mostly dependent on the topography of the area. Needless to say, the length of the siding is different for different projects. Some are less than one km but others could be as long as 27-km.