BHUBANESWAR: Stating that the Railway Budget has been disappointing for Odisha, the BJD on Tuesday alleged that no new railway lines have been announced for the State and many of the demands were ignored.Rajya Sabha MP and BJD spokesperson Pratap Keshari Deb said there has been a marginal increase of only 2.9 per cent in the allocation for Odisha. “`5,252 crore allocated for Odisha includes 58 per cent of last year budget’s unspent funds,” he told mediapersons here.
Stating that announcements made in previous budgets have been forgotten this year, Deb said though the State Government had provided land for a rail wagon factory at Sitalapalli in Kalahandi district, there is no proposal in this regard in this year’s budget. Deb claimed that though Odisha contributes revenue of `15,000 crore to the Railways per year, no new project has been announced for the State.
Though there has been repeated demands from the State Government for announcement of Berhampur-Sambalpur, Puri-Konark, Bargarh-Nuapada, Talcher-Gopalpur, Bhadrachalam-Bimalagarh, Paradip-Dhamra, Talcher-FCI-Angul. Barbil-Banspani, Barsuan-Banspani-Badampahad railway line projects, not a single project has been announced.
Deb also expressed concern over the low expenditure of funds announced in the budget. Though `5,102 cr was provided for Odisha in 2017-18 Railway Budget, the expenditure has been less than `3,000 cr, he said and added that utilisation of funds on railway projects have stagnated during the last several years.
The BJD leader alleged that `200 crore each allotted for Angul-Sukinda and Haridaspur-Paradip railway line projects will be raised from loan and State Government will contribute 30 per cent of the project cost. There will be no contribution of Railways in these projects, he said and allocation announced for Jeypore-Malkangiri railway line will be contributed by the State Government. Though `200 crore was provided for the project in 2017-18 budget, there was no expenditure, he said.Demand for Buxi Jagabandhu Express between Bhubaneswar and Mumbai, Rajdhani Express between Bhubaneswar and New Delhi via Sambalpur and introduction of MRTS for Khurda, Bhubaneswar and Cuttack have been ignored, he said.