New Talcher-Bimlagarh railway line project to face further delay
ROURKELA : Floating of tender for the remaining stretch of nearly 70 km of the Talcher-Bimlagarh new rail line project is likely to be delayed by a couple of months due to various factors including the tardy pace of land acquisition.
The ECoR is likely to float a single tender for the final 70-km stretch from Pallahara to Bimlagarh by July or August. Work on the new rail line project had kicked off 12 years back.
Sources said after the safety approval by Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS) for South Eastern Circle Brajesh Mishra, a newly-laid 9.77 km rail track between Sunakhani and Samal was commissioned on March 31. Earlier, 17.62 km track of the project from Talcher to Sunakhani was commissioned in January 2020. With this, 27.39 km from Talcher to Samal is ready for use out of the total project length of 149.780 km.
President of Sachetan Nagarik Manch Bimal Bisi said the next stretch of around 6.5 km of the Samal-Parabil block section is expected to be commissioned in June after the initial target of April. Separately, work is underway for the next stretch of 14.20 km between Parabil and Khamar. Similarly, earthwork, bridge and building construction activities are going on for the 19.3 km stretch between Khamar and Srirampur. Tender process is underway for a stretch of 9.475 km from Srirampur to Pallahara.
In at least 12 scattered points in Angul district, the project’s progress continues to be impacted due to land hurdles. Bisi said private land acquisition in four villages of Deogarh district and seven villages of Sundargarh is still pending. Since over 90 per cent of private land has been acquired so far, the ECoR is likely to float a single tender for the final stretch from Pallahara to Bimlagarh by July or August.
Meanwhile, Ranjit Swain of the Odisha Rail Users’ Multi-modal Connectivity Forum said in a letter to the ECoR, the land acquisition officer, Angul has expressed inability to evict unauthorised occupants at Khamar on the plea of MCC for the polls. Demanding intervention of the chief secretary in the matter, he said the project does not come under the purview of MCC. No further delay should be allowed in the project which has been running many years behind schedule, Swain added.