The Raipur Railway Division has greenlit the extension of platforms across the Durg-Dallirajhara section to accommodate longer trains and surging passenger traffic in Chhattisgarh’s industrial belt.

RAIPUR, March 28, 2026 — The Raipur Railway Division of South East Central Railway (SECR) has launched a sweeping infrastructure offensive to overhaul the Durg-Dallirajhara rail corridor. At the heart of the plan is a massive platform extension project designed to fix a decades-old bottleneck that has restricted train lengths and stifled passenger capacity in one of India’s most critical mineral zones.

The directive, finalized this week, targets multiple stations along the single-line section that currently struggles to host full-length express and passenger rakes. By extending these platforms, the division aims to allow 22-to-24-coach trains to halt safely, moving away from the shorter 12-to-14-coach formations that currently dominate the route.

This isn’t just about longer concrete slabs. It’s a tactical response to the rapidly advancing Dallirajhara-Rowghat-Jagdalpur rail project. As the line pushes further into the Bastar region—with services already operational up to Tadoki—the Raipur Division is seeing a sharp spike in transit demand from students, workers, and traders.

“The current infrastructure was built for a different era of local transit,” an SECR official noted during the project briefing. “With the extension of the line toward Rowghat and eventually Jagdalpur, this section is becoming a national artery, not just a regional branch.”

Real numbers back the urgency. The Union Ministry of Railways recently pumped 6,925 crore into Chhattisgarh’s rail infrastructure for the 2025-2026 financial year. That is a staggering 22-fold jump compared to the average annual allocation a decade ago.

And the work is already hitting the ground. Tenders for miscellaneous static services and station upgrades have been rolling out through the Indian Railways E-Procurement System (IREPS) over the last month. Beyond the platforms, the division is also prioritizing safety-critical upgrades, including the provision of five new Intermediate Block (IB) signals in the Marauda-Dallirajhara section to increase line capacity.

But the project faces a unique set of hurdles. The Durg-Dallirajhara line serves as the primary evacuation route for high-grade iron ore from the Dalli and Rajhara mines to the Bhilai Steel Plant. Balancing the heavy freight traffic of 130 km/h ore rakes with the expanded passenger schedule required for longer platforms is a logistical tightrope.

So, what’s the timeline?

Engineering teams are expected to begin earthwork and yard remodeling by the second quarter of 2026. The goal is to synchronize the platform readiness with the commissioning of the remaining 18.55-kilometer Dalli Rajhara-Rowghat section, which is slated for completion by mid-2025 but has faced recent environmental and security-related delays.

For the residents of Balod and Durg districts, the stakes are high. Shorter platforms have long meant that passengers in rear coaches of longer trains were forced to disembark onto the tracks a significant safety hazard that this project intends to eliminate.

The era of the “short-shunted” passenger train on this route is coming to a close.