Rites Ltd, the consultancy arm of Indian Railways, announced that it bagged three contracts in road consultancy & construction supervision in Orissa, totally worth Rs.294 crore.

These are:

• Special Rural Connectivity Programme (Rs.211 crore)
• preparation of DPR and construction supervision of roads in Kalinganagar Industrial Area under Industrial Development Corporation of Orissa (Rs.60 crore)
• quality surveillance for construction of roads in Sundargarh district for Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (Rs 23 crore.)

RITES has also been engaged to provide services for SRCP in the Kalahandi, Balangir and Koraput districts of the state.

The project aims at providing basic connectivity to unconnected habitations with population of 1,000 and above. Cost of Phase I of the project is estimated to be Rs 211 crore, likely to increase to Rs.840 crore. The project shall be completed within a period of three years involving reconstruction, new construction and rehabilitation of a total road length of approximately 1,200 km.

The second contract entails the preparation of detailed project report and construction supervision of roads in Kalinganagar Industrial Area under Industrial Development Corporation of Orissa. IDCO plans to develop the Kalinganagar Industrial Area as Steel City (with total finished steel production of 16 million tpa) through private participation. Their immediate requirement is common rail and road connectivity both for the plants and to the national network of transportation.

The assignment for RITES would be two parts - rail and highways. The 35 km road project has an estimated cost of Rs.60 crore and duration of 24 months.

The third contract bagged by RITES is for quality surveillance from Mahanadi Coalfields for construction of roads in Sundargarh district from Balinga to Taparia for a length of 24 km, at an estimated cost of Rs.23 crore and a project duration of 30 months.