The coal ministry feels that the railway ministry has taken a view of expediting the process of laying tracks to connect coal mines since it has been for the first time that a railway minister has mentioned such a project in his budget speech.

Plans for coal mine connectivity projects were conceived a decade ago but the railways never took it as priority. “The railway ministry has shown its seriousness about the need to evacuate additional coal and for this the plan to invest in coal mine-linking projects is important,” Sriprakash Jaiswal, coal minister told Fe.