ROURKELA: Work on the much-delayed 149-km-long Bimlagarh-Talcher new rail line seems to have gained momentum with land acquisition and forest land diversion for the project that will pass through Sundargarh, Deogarh and Angul districts getting underway.
Sources in the ECoR said 43 km of private land from Talcher has been acquired for the broad gauge rail line while process is underway to divert 25 km to 43 km of forest land in Angul. Forest land proposal for the balance patch between Samal and Bimalagarh in Sundargarh is in process.
Notification under Section 11 (A) of Land Acquisition Act for first phase has been issued in 18 villages of Angul, while social impact assessment study is in advance stage for 43 km to 149 km covering 15 villages of Pallahada tehsil in Angul, 19 villages of Barakote tehsil in Deogarh and 29 villages of Bonai, Lahunipada and Koida tehsils in Sundargarh district. Up to 43 km from Talcher side government land has been alienated, while requisition for alienation of government land for balance patch has been submitted to the respective tehsildars in three districts.
Rourkela-based Regional Chief Conservator of Forest (RCCF) Lingaraj Otta said forest land diversion proposal received from DFOs in Sundargarh and Deogarh and part of Angul district was on Friday submitted at the office of Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF), Bhubaneswar. After necessary action, the office of PCCF would forward it to the Eastern Regional Office (ERO) of Ministry of Environment & Forest (MoEF) in Bhubaneswar. For this linear project, the ERO of MoEF is eligible for giving final clearance without sending the proposal to MoEF.
In another development, the ECoR’s Deputy Chief Engineer in Angul had written to the Revenue & Disaster Management (R&DM) department on June 26 urging it to issue a clarification to Angul Sub-Registrar, who rejected application for exemption of stamp duty and registration fee for intermittent private plots measuring 12.56 acres in Talcher-Sunakhani-Parabil section. The ECoR said it is a national project and qualifies for exemption as per guidelines of the R&DM department.
Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram, in a letter on Friday, urged Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to resolve the issue of exemption of stamp duty and registration fee at the earliest in public interest. The project will cost about `1,928 crore and the Central Government has till now sanctioned `982.50 crore with the revised project completion time set for 2022.
CONNECTING DISTRICTS
The rail line of 149.78 km through Angul, Deogarh and Sundargarh districts would reduce the distance between Rourkela and Bhubaneswar to 347 kms from the present 462 kms via Sambalpur
43 kms of private land from Talcher side has been acquired for the broad gauge rail line while process is underway to divert 25 km to 43 km of forest land in Angul
The project cost is about `1,928 crore and the Central Government till now has sanctioned `982.50 crore with the revised project completion time being 2022.