Bilaspur (IP News). Chhattisgarh East-West Railway Limited (CEWRL) is a subsidiary company of South Eastern Coalfields Limited (SECL) (with 64% stake) formed in joint venture with Ircon International Limited (IRCON) (with 26% stake) and Government of Chhattisgarh (GoCG) (with 10% stake). CEWRL project is planned with the specific purpose of augmenting the rail infrastructure in the state of Chhattisgarh.
This Project is being implemented based on the Joint Venture (JV) model of PPP projects under Concession Agreement (CA) with MoR and is notified as ‘Special Railway Project’ to provide national infrastructure for a public purpose with high priority accorded by the Government of India.
With the emphasis on using more environment friendly modes of transportation, the Chhattisgarh East-West Rail Corridor project having approx. length of 135.30 km of main line (New BG Electrified Double Rail Line) with 56km of connectivity lines will be instrumental in reducing the burden on the single evacuation rail link in the region which extends from Gevra Road station to Champa where it joins the main Kolkata-Mumbai trunk line.
The East-West corridor will provide a shorter route for coal transportation by joining Gevra Road to the Bilaspur- Annupur- Katni line at the Pendra Road station and thus will enable seamless movement of coal from SECL’s mines as well as other coal mines in the Mand-Raigarh & Korba coalfields of Chhattisgarh to northern and western parts of india.
SECL is the largest coal producing subsidiary of Coal India Limited. The project is planned to have connectivity lines to the Gevra, Kusmunda and Dipika Mines of SECL which have high potentials of coal production. The East West corridor will mainly comprise of coal traffic from Korba Mines and MandRaigarh coalfields of SECL and is strategically located for specifically serving the purpose of coal transportation from these coalfields.
CEWRL project cost is estimated to be Rs. 4970 crore with a funding structure of Debt: Equity of 80:20 i.e Rs 3976 crore of debt and Rs. 994 crore of equity. Demonstrating the commitment towards the project, Promoters have already invested Rs. 650.00 cores in CEWRL project. Using this money, the company has been able to acquire the desired land and forest clearance for the main line. The project is expected to be completed by March 2023.
For the total exposure of debt of Rs. 3976 crore, the company has singed the Rupee Term Loan documents with the consortium of banks for part financing of the project. The consortium is led by SBI with other participating banks namely, Bank of Baroda, Canara Bank, Punjab National Bank, Union Bank of India and Indian Bank.
For completing the loan documentation, the final loan document i.e, Sponsor Support Agreement was signed between the promoters, viz South Eastern Coalfields Ltd, Ircon International Limited (IRCON) and Government of Chhattisgarh, the JV company, the lender’s agent and Security trustee on 22nd July 2020 at Raipur. This concludes the documentation process of achieving financial closure of the project.
This will facilitate in early disbursement from banks and upon undertaking the construction activity at large by the JV company, will in turn help in boosting up the economy at large.
