Bhubaneswar, July 14: By expressing his displeasure regarding railway project work of Khurdha road and Bolangir , Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday directed East Coast Railways officials (ECoR) to quicken the project work at a meeting with officers of EcoR here and also demanded them to ensure railway lines to Nayagarh by March 2017. The state and central government has jointly developed the project. According to information the rail line would cover Boudh, Sonepur and Bolangir districts. The project would end by 2020, sources informed.
It was scheduled that the construction work of Rajsunakhala-Bologada would be completed by June end but nothing such happened yet, said Ramesh Majhi, minister of Commerce and Transport after the meeting. The announcement regarding availability of land and cost for this project work has been made by the government while 50% of cost would be beared by the government. Till now around 90 km land from Khurdha and 19 km land from Bolangir has been given. With this land acquisition proses also has been commenced by the revenue department. After getting the land requisition application from ECoR authority, the land would be handed over to them, Majhi informed.
After the meeting while talking to the media persons, Rajiv Bishnoi, General Manager of ECoR informed that the rail line work of Rajsunakhala-Bologada section would be completed within a month. Due to rainfall and ill-health of contractor engaged in this project, the work got delayed and railway line up to Nayagarh would be done by March 2017. For this, land requisition in other districts has been submitted, Bishnoi further added. Regarding forest clearance, all the departments of the state government’s cooperation would be provided to the ECoR and the clearance application would be submitted in August.
Notably, in 1994-95, center had sanctioned the 289-km railway project work to facilitate rail connectivity between coastal and western regions. But due to shortage of fund, delay in land acquisition and clearances, the project work had got delayed.
