The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved doubling of Nimach-Ratlam railway line.
The total estimated cost of the project will be Rs 1,095.88 crore and its escalated / completion cost is Rs 1,184.67 crore. The total length of doubling of the line is 132.92 km. The project will be completed in four years.
The line capacity utilisation of Nimach-Ratlam section is up to 145.6 percent with maintenance blocks. Project route section has become oversaturated well above optimum capacity even without maintenance block.
The main inward freight traffic carried is coal for captive power plants of cement companies. Traffic on the section will further increase on account of new cement industries coming up due to availability of huge deposits of cement grade lime stone in Nimach-Chittorgarh area.
Doubling of Nimach-Ratlam section will increase the capacity of the section. Thus, more goods and passenger trains can be introduced on the system. Due to proximity of cement industries, additional freight traffic of 5.67 million tpa is expected from first year which will increase to 9.45 million tpa in 11th year.
