Bhubaneswar, Feb 1: Although the Centre, as per the RTI query, has ‘shelved’ the proposed Sitalapalli wagon factory in Ganjam, the State still hopes from the Union Railway Budget on account of expediting the ongoing railway projects and sanctioning of funds for new projects especially in the unconnected and backward regions of the State. The Odisha CM, Naveen Patnaik has requested in a letter to Union Railway minister Suresh Prabhu, to set up an Electric Locomotive Maintenance (POH) unit at Kalahandi. Along with this, he has also asked the latter to establish concrete sleeper plants at Kantabanjhi (Bolangir) and Bandamunda (Sundergarh), and Skill Development Centres in KBK districts. Further, Patnaik has requested to sanction Rs 5,870 crore for Odisha in the Rail Budget which is an increase of Rs 1188 crore from the amount sanctioned in 2016. He has also sought for the Centre’s support in providing rail facilities to people of Odishas backward areas, such as, rail connectivity from Gopalpur to Singapur Road BG Line (via Padampur, Ramnaguda, Bakili), Bhadrachalam to Bimlagarh, Bargarh to Nuapada via Padampur and Talcher to Gopalpur. As these backward regions are full of natural resources, these rail connectivity would enable mineral movement by establishing linkage with southern Odisha and provide shorter connectivity to Gopalpur port. Patnaik has also requested the Railways minister to initiate the East Coast dedicated freight corridor from Kharagpur to Vijaywada and east-west dedicated freight corridor from Jharsuguda to Bilaspur to ensure seamless movement of freight between the upcoming ports of Kirtania, Chidamani, Dhamra, Astarang and Gopalpur along Odisha coast along with major ports at Paradip and the vast north-eastern and central hinterlands of India. Reacting on the State’s demand, former Union Railway minister, Kanhu Charan Lenka said the allocation must be utilised in a time bound manner as allocation gets refunded by many states as they fail to initiate and execute projects on time. On the other hand, BJD MP Balabhadra Majhi pointed out the fact that there should be proper funding of the ongoing projects by the Centre in order to speed up the work.
 |
