BHUBANESWAR: The Centre has made a provision of Rs 6,995.58 crore for Odisha in the 2021-22 Railway budget with emphasis on early completion of ongoing projects and safety-related modernisation works. However, no new railway lines have been sanctioned for the year.
The allocation is about 21 per cent (per cent) more than last year’s budget allocation of Rs 5,759.64 crore, a release issued by the East Coast Railways (ECoR) said.
But, the provisional outlay in 2020-21 Railway budget for Odisha was Rs 4,373 crore. The State government had, however, demanded an allocation of Rs 7,200 crore for railway infrastructure.
“The total budget outlay for development of infrastructure and safety-related works for Odisha is Rs 5,528 crore for 2021-22, which does not include many other projects and estimates as they are not significant enough for mention at ministry level, but for ECoR and Odisha, these are important development works,” the release said.
The ECoR maintained that funding has been made to ensure that no project is held up for lack of funds. The release said allocation of Rs 2,966.66 crore has been made for traffic facilities, computerisation, rolling stock, lease charges, level crossings, road under bridge and over bridges, track renewal and limited height subways (LHS) which are significant.
Khurda Road-Balangir project has received the lion’s share of Rs 1,000.50 crore compared to Rs 520 crore in the previous budget, an increase of 92.4 per cent. Funding for railway line doubling projects especially, Bansapani-Daitari-Tomka-Jahkapura is Rs 228 crore against Rs 80 crore last year, which is an 185 per cent increase.
Allocations for other projects include - Brundamal-Jharsuguda fly over (Rs 20 crore against Rs 10 crore last year), Bhadrak-Nergundi 3rd line (Rs 229 crore against Rs 102 crore last year), Budhapank-Salagaon (Rs 215 crore against Rs 205 crore last year), Rourkela- Jharsuguda 3rd line (Rs 230 crore as against Rs 170 crore an increase of 35 per cent) and Narayangarh-Bhadrak 3rd line (Rs 225 crore as against Rs 50 crore last year).
Centre earmarks Rs 6,995 crore for Odisha
Allocation for passenger amenities has also increased substantially from Rs 129 crore last year to Rs 429 crore in this budget, the ECoR said and added Rs 400 crore has been sanctioned as against Rs 324 crore last year for elimination of level crossing gates.
However, Commerce and Transport Minister Padmanabha Behera maintained that only Rs 4,500 crore has been allocated for Odisha which is disappointing. Stating that no new rail line has been sanctioned for Odisha, Behera said the State government’s demand has not been met and allocation is much less than expectation.
The State government had demanded Rs 7,200 crore of which Rs 3,500 crore was for the pending projects and Rs 3,700 crore for new projects. New railway line projects demanded by the State government included Puri-Konark, Bargarh-Nuapada, Chakulia- Buramara and Jajpur-Aradi-Dhamra.
Pradhan refutes claim of low allocations
Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan stated that Narendra Modi government has all along been cooperative towards railway infrastructure development in Odisha. “Some people have been saying something without having facts,” he said.