ROURKELA: The South Eastern Railway (SER), accused of hindering integrated growth of the Rourkela Smart City, has hinted at adopting a soft approach to garner political and public support to complete its key third line project on Howrah-Mumbai main line.
For the past two years, Jharsuguda-Rourkela third line project worth Rs 765 crore is stuck on the Rourkela portion of about five km due to encroachment. Ironically, SER’s failure to get support from Sundargarh administration and all political parties, including the ruling BJD, was its own creation.
During the visit of SER General Manager SK Mohanty with senior officers on Monday evening, the Rourkela BJD MLA and former Housing and Urban Development Minister Sarada Prasad Nayak apprised him of the ground situation.
Nayak said the four-lane project worth Rs 13 crore connecting the second entrance of the railway station was stalled after the SER forced the Public Works Department (PWD) to confine a middle portion of 1,200 metre to two-lane. Nayak said the SER demanded Rs 107 crore for land cost to go beyond two-lane and assets damage cost of Rs 3 crore. Although the State Government was ready to pay assets damage, the plea was not accepted.
Once the four-lane is complete, 80 per cent of traffic of Rourkela city and adjoining areas would prefer it to reach the railway station. Nayak alleged that ignoring the guidelines of Rajiv Awas Yojana and Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), the SER rejected an offer of the district administration to help rehabilitate dwellers on 20 acre of its land who would face eviction for the third line project. “About 400 acre of SER land is in illegal occupation and several businessmen are using the land for commercial gains but SER has no hesitation in defying Central Government guidelines for PMAY to help poor,” he said.
Nayak also pointed out that territorial jurisdiction of SER runs through Rourkela Municipal Corporation limits, but it neither allows welfare and development projects nor develops the areas, hindering growth of Smart City.
The SER GM assured to look into the issues and also inspected the four-lane hurdles. Mohanty was also apprised about the need to widen the British era subway at Panposh here under the Howrah-Mumbai rail route.
In August, the BJD had moved the administration against SER when it decided to remove encroachment for the railway project.