Indian Railways has approved a ₹440 crore project to construct a 14.52-km third railway line between Nimpura West Outer Cabin and Midnapur in the South Eastern Railway zone. Located on the High Utilisation Network (HUN-2), the corridor currently handles 23.80 million tonnes per annum of freight at 115.71% capacity utilisation. The upgrade is expected to add 3.52 MTPA of freight capacity, easing congestion for manganese, iron ore, coal, steel, and other essential commodities. The initiative supports India’s goal to raise rail’s freight modal share to 45% by 2030.
According to indiashippingnews.com, Indian Railways has approved the construction of a 14.52-km third railway line between Nimpura West Outer Cabin and Midnapur in the South Eastern Railway zone at an estimated cost of ₹440 crore.
Project Scope and Strategic Location
The new infrastructure lies on the High Utilisation Network (HUN-2) route — a critical corridor identified for urgent capacity augmentation. The Nimpura West Outer Cabin–Gokulpur section is currently a single-line segment, with doubling works already underway. Adding a third line will significantly enhance operational flexibility and redundancy across this bottlenecked stretch.
The project targets a specific geographic corridor in eastern India, anchored in Kolkata and extending through key mineral and industrial zones served by the South Eastern Railway. This region forms part of India’s eastern mineral belt, supplying raw materials essential to domestic steel, cement, and power sectors.
Freight Volume and Capacity Constraints
The existing line handles nearly 23.80 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of freight traffic and operates at a line capacity utilisation rate of 115.71 percent — indicating chronic overcapacity and systemic congestion. This exceeds design thresholds and directly impacts punctuality, maintenance scheduling, and safety margins.
Cargo types moving along this corridor include manganese, iron ore, containers, coal, clinker, pellets, steel, wheat, petroleum products, fertilisers, and cement. The overloaded infrastructure impedes timely movement of both essential commodities and passenger services, creating cascading delays across the network.
Quantified Operational Impact
Once completed, the third line is projected to accommodate an additional 3.52 MTPA of freight traffic. This uplift represents a 14.8% increase over current annual throughput (23.80 MTPA), directly addressing the deficit created by sustained overutilisation.
The expansion will reduce bottlenecks that currently delay high-priority freight such as iron ore destined for steel plants and coal bound for thermal power stations. It also supports the Government of India’s broader Railway Freight Rationalisation Plan, which aims to raise rail’s modal share in domestic freight from ~27% to 45% by 2030.
Logistics and Supply Chain Implications
For supply chain professionals managing bulk commodity flows in eastern India, the project delivers measurable near-term relief: reduced transit times, improved train scheduling reliability, and lower demurrage and detention costs at originating and destination terminals. Industry practitioners note that consistent line capacity below 90% utilisation is necessary to absorb unplanned disruptions — a threshold this project helps restore.
From a multimodal transport perspective, enhanced rail capacity strengthens integration with major ports including Paradip and Visakhapatnam, where mineral exports and imported raw materials converge. This aligns with national initiatives like the Vishwakarma Scheme and PM Gati Shakti, both designed to synchronise infrastructure planning across transport modes.
Source: indiashippingnews.com
Compiled from international media by the SCI.AI editorial team.
