ROURKELA: Amid delay in availability of private, government and forest land for the Bimlagarh-Talcher new rail line project, the East Coast Railway (ECoR) has further revised the project deadline to March 2023. The deadline is subject to final availability of land by March 2020.
The ECoR Deputy Chief Engineer (Construction) PK Panda in a letter to Rourkela Steel Plant Executives’ Association president Bimal Bisi on January 20, informed that 17.62 km track from Talcher to Sunakhani has been completed and authorisation received from the Commissioner of Railway Safety on January 6 to run passenger train. The rail line project (149.78 km) is likely to be commissioned by March 2023 subject to availability of private and government land by March 2020.
The reply came after Bisi on January 2 wrote to the Prime Minister’s Officer (PMO) which has been monitoring the project on monthly basis after its inclusion in the PRAGATI (Pro-Active Governance And Timely Implementation) initiative. He said it is unfortunate only 17.62 km of the railway line project, which was sanctioned in 2003-04, could be completed so far. He also requested for intervention of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to remove technical hurdles to make land available for the project.