Foundation Stone Laid for Railway Line to Connect Jaigarh Port with Digni Station

Jaigarh Port: A 33.7 kilometer long proposed railway corridor, connecting Jaigarh Port to the Digni station of Konkan Railway, is set to become a reality after Devendra Fadnavis, Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Suresh Prabhu, Union Minister of Railways and Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Transport laid foundation stone for the construction works of Jaigarh-Digni Railway link on March 25. This will be the new railway line connecting Jaigarh Port to the new Digni station on Konkan Rail network.

Salient Features of the Proposed Rail link project are…

The project will play a critical role which has been conceptualized by KRCL under (Joint Venture) JV model of Rail Participative Policy promulgated by Ministry of Railways. The JV company is formed as Jaigarh Digni Rail Limited (JDRL), in which JSWJPL, Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd. and Maharashtra Maritime Board (MMB) are the shareholders. The PPP project will be implemented by JSW Infrastructure, an arm of the JSW Group, which will hold 63 per cent, Konkan Railway 26 per cent and the Maharashtra Maritime Board the remaining 11 percent. The special purpose vehicle executing the project has been named Jaigarh Digni Rail Ltd. 

JSW Jaigarh Port Ltd. (JSWJPL), an arm of JSW Infrastructure Limited signed  a        30-year Concession Agreement with Ministry of Railways (MoR) through Konkan Railway Corporation Limited (KRCL) on June 28, 2015. JSWJPL will develop this project under Public Private Partnership model for development, operation and maintenance of rail system. The estimated cost of the project is Rs. 771 crores, which is being funded through combination of equity and debt.

The alignment for this new rail line passes through difficult terrain of Sahyadri Mountains which would necessitate construction of about 18 km long tunnels. The estimated time of completion is 30 months and the rail corridor is expected to handle the freight traffic of around 12 million tones per annum to and from Jaigarh Port.

On the completion, this project will help the port company to haul bulk commodities from Jaigarh port to Konkan Railway and further onward movement to hinterland and will bring a socio economic change in the region by creating more job avenues. During the construction of the project, there will be direct/indirect employment to the local people. The agricultural produce of the hinterland can be moved through the port.  Besides all these, there will be a lot of port related development in this region.