Minister of Railways Suresh Prabhu on 14 July 2015 inaugurated the broad-gauge railway-line between Gandhidham and Tuna-Tekra Port in Gujarat by flagging off a goods train.
The rail line is India’s first railway-line built with private sector participation under Non-Government Railway (NGR) Policy 2012 of Indian Railways.
The rail line has been built at a cost of approx 185 crore rupees for M/s Kandla Port Trust (KPT) to bring about better and faster rail connectivity to Port of Tuna & Tekra.
The rail-line between Gandhidham, a town in Kutch district of Gujarat, and Tuna-Tekra Port, a port 20-km west of Kandla in Gulf of Kutch, was funded by M/s Kandla Port Trust (KPT) and Western Railway Zone of Indian Railways coordinated and pioneered it.
The project, approved by the Railway Board in October 2013, was completed in a record time of 12 months in May 2015 and was executed in two parts. The first part, viz., 11-km Gandhidham- Tuna Rail line was executed by Western Railway Zone as deposite work while the second part, viz., 6-km Tuna-Tekra line was executed by M/s Kandla Port Trust.
The major traffic on this line will be coal and fertilizer with an expected commodity traffic of average 4 rakes daily resulting in an approximate revenue of 500 crore rupees for Indian Railways.
Non-Government Railway (NGR) Policy 2012
Indian Railways unveiled the private line/Non-Government Railway (NGR) Model of Participative Model Policy in 2012 for undertaking rail connectivity and capacity augmentation projects.
Under this, Indian Railways has undertaken connectivity to 4 ports namely Dhamra Port, Tuna Port, Jaigarh Port, Dighi Port. These four projects will generate investment of approx. 2400 crore rupees with no financial commitment to equity from Ministry of Railways.
Further, in-principle clearance has been granted for another five port connectivity projects under the NGR Policy 2012. These five projects will generate investment of approx. 2800 crore rupees with no financial commitment to equity from Ministry of Railways.
Earlier, between 2002 and 2012 seven port connectivity projects were implemented. These projects have added approximately 950 km of railway line bringing an investment of approximately 3000 crore rupees.
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