ROURKELA: Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday said construction of the third line project in Rourkela-Panposh section has been badly affected due to large-scale encroachment and there is no provision to rehabilitate the squatters.
Replying to questions of Sundargarh MP and Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence Chairman Jual Oram in the Lok Sabha, Goyal said there are 801 structures and 747 families are illegally occupying Railway land. The Railway has no provision for rehabilitating encroachers and this has been intimated to Odisha Government, he said.
Goyal further informed that the estimated cost of the 101-km third line project between Jharsuguda and Rourkela was Rs 1,312.97 crore and till March this year, Rs 453 crore has been spent. An outlay of Rs 150 crore has been made in 2019-20 budget. On the other hand, Rourkela BJD MLA Sarada Prasad Nayak lamented the Union Minister’s refusal to rehabilitate slum dwellers residing on the land of South Eastern Railway.
Citing guidelines of the PMAY scheme, Nayak said there is clear mention that Central Government agencies are responsible for settlement of slum dwellers on their land. It is unfortunate that the Railway Ministry and its authorities are refusing to rehabilitate poor slum people and showing scant regard to the guidelines.