Bhubaneswar, July 24: An 85km railway corridor in Angul-Chhendipada-Talcher coal belt will be built at an estimated cost of Rs 5,000 crore.

Nearly 57 industries, including public sector National Aluminium Company (Nalco), will be benefited from this corridor to be built in public-private partnership mode.

Of these industries, 23 are in steel and 22 in the power sector. The state government and some of the industrial units will undertake the project with the help of the railways.

The proposed corridor will supplement the under-construction Angul-Kamakhya Nagar-Sukinda broad gauge line connecting the mineral belts. The project is being executed by an agency, in which the Rail Vikash Nigam, Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC), Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco), Jindal Steel and the Bhusan Steel have financial stakes.

Chief secretary Bijay Patnaik today asked Idco, which has conceptualised the coal belt project, to go ahead with the land acquisition. Around 5,000 acres will be required for the purpose. The OMC will provide financial support to develop the project in case of necessity.

The proposed common corridor will be a composite one, consisting of railway and road network. The rail corridor is flanked by two national highways (NH-42 and NH-23). It will be developed in three phases. In the first phase, construction of Jarpada-Tentuloi track (21.75km) and Tentuloi-Nuagaon Telisahi track (21.907km) will be taken up. Later, links between Utkal and Radhikapur east coal blocks will be established. In the final phase, the remaining work would be completed.

The corridor will connect more than 10 coal blocks, including Baitarani West, Machhkund and Chhendipada, new Patrapada, Nuagaon Telisahi, Radhikapur and Utkal coal blocks.

The proposed link will ease the traffic congestion on the existing road and rail networks.