BHUBANESWAR: Seeking to provide connectivity to areas hitherto having no rail links, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday urged Railway Minister Piyush Goyal to sanction at least six new projects in the upcoming general budget for 2018-19 to extend rail links to backward regions, which are full of natural resources.
Submitting a detailed project proposal worth `6,500 crore to the Railway Ministry ahead of presentation of the next general budget, the Chief Minister said the proposed rail links traverse mainly through unconnected and backward districts full of natural resources. Apart from establishing linkage with southern Odisha, the new lines will trigger rapid economic growth of the backward regions by facilitating mineral movements.
The projects proposed by the Chief Minister include Berhampur-Phulbani-Sambalpur, Bargarh-Nuapada via Padampur, Bhadrachalam-Malkangiri, Talcher-Gopalpur, Gopalpur-Singapur Road new board gauge line and Lanjigarh-Talcher rail lines.
“I request you to sanction these important new lines in the forthcoming budget which can bring prosperity along with connectivity to the needy areas. Apart from these, I have proposed to bear 50 per cent of construction and land cost for a line connecting Puri-Konark, the most important tourist section of the State and a popular international destination,” Naveen said in a letter to Goyal.
Justifying the demand for an increased allocation of `6,500 crore against last year’s support of `5,102 crore, the Chief Minister said despite posting a higher growth rate, which is almost 20 per cent higher than the growth rate of the national GDP (gross domestic product), and contributing in excess of `15,000 crore revenue annually to the Railways, the rail density of the State at 16 per cent is much less than the national average of 20 per cent.
To correct this aberration, the State Government has demarcated rail connectivity as a priority area with the mandate to extend rail network to every district with focus specifically to those regions that have not got the opportunity to grow due to lack of rail infrastructure, he said.
“To ensure rail connectivity to tribal districts, the State Government has signed MoUs with the Railway Ministry for a few projects. While it has agreed to bear 50 per cent of the construction cost of Jeypore-Nabarangpur and 25 per cent construction and land cost of Jeypore-Malkangiri lines, the State has committed to allocate land free of cost for Daspalla-Balangir section and share 50 per cent of the project cost,” the letter said.
Expressing his displeasure over the slow pace of works of several important railway projects under implementation in the State, the Chief Minister urged Goyal to re-prioritise projects like Khurda Road-Balangir, Talcher-Bimalagarh, Jeypore-Nabarangpur and Jeypore-Malkangiri for seamless execution as these projects have immense socio-economic growth potential. With the East Coast Railway (ECoR) making rapid strides by becoming the top loading railway and registering highest growth rate in passenger bookings, the Chief Minister said the growth in different geographic areas of the State now calls for a reorganisation of its administrative structure with new divisional headquarters at Rayagada, Jajpur-Keonjhar Road and Rourkela.