National Mineral Policy 2006 - Department of Mines

to the ports of Haldia and Paradip are the main short-term infrastructure requirements in theeastern sector.INFRASTRUCTURE NEEDS OF DIMENSION STONE INDUSTRY4.14 Internationally, more than 90 per cent of the movement of dimension stones (marbleand granite) to ports and internal destinations is by rail, this being the cheapest mode oftransportation. In the absence of rail transport facilities on the scale required, Indian stoneminers depend entirely on high cost road transport for the movement of dimension stones.However, trucks can carry weight only upto a limit. Being heavyweight cargo, transportationof granite blocks by trucks has its problems. Single dimension blocks of 15–30 tonnes, whichare required for export markets as well as for large factories within the country, have to betransported by trucks but most of the trucks in India can legally carry only 12-tonne loads. InChina, South Africa, and Zimbabwe, transportation of large dimension stones receivessupport from the railways. Compared to the facilities in these countries, the Indian dimensionstone industry has practically no support from the railways.TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE: ROADS, RAILWAYS, AND PORTS4.15 A number of NHs and one SH were identified in the presentations before theCommittee as being of critical importance to the mining sector. These are listed below:(i) Rajamunda–Barbil (NH-215): 60 km(ii) Barbil–Panikoili (NH-215): 189 km(iii) Chandikhol–Paradip (NH-5A): 77 km(iv) Jamshedpur–Haldia (NH-33, NH-6, and NH-41): 200 km(v) Jaintgarh–Chaibasa–Haldia (SH): 100 km4.16 The position regarding NH-215, two stretches of which are listed at serial nos. (i) and(ii) above, is that the NH starts at Panikoili and ends at Rajamunda, and the entire 269-kmhighway falls within Orissa. Improvement of NH-215 has been included under NationalHighway Development Projects (NHDP) Phase-IIIA for a length of 249 km from Panikoili toRoxy. The remaining length of 20 km from Rajamunda to Roxy is also included under NHDPPhase-IIIA and the proposal is likely to be considered shortly. The Detailed Project Report(DPR) has been received by NHAI and the work is likely to be awarded in December 2006and completed in December 2009.102