BHAWANIPATNA: The recently announced Railway Budget has evoked resentment among the people of Kalahandi as many important train connectivity proposals for the district have not been taken into consideration.
Sources said local residents were hopeful of proposals like the extension of Howrah-Titilagarh Ispat express train up to Kesinga/Bhawanipatna, Bhubaneswar-Bolangir and Durg-Puri Intercity to Kesinga and Junagarh Road-Sambalpur passenger train up to Puri via Talcher besides new train service from Junagarh road station to Visakhapatnam.
Last month, BJP MP Basanta Kumar Panda and Rajya Sabha member Sujit Kumar (BJD) had presented a memorandum to the Railway Ministry for the extension of many rail lines apart from the construction of new ones. During Railway Minister Aswini Vaishnaw’s visit to Kalahandi as part of Jana Ashirwad Yatra in August last year, around 40 different organisations had presented various railway proposals.
These included an extension of Howrah-Titilagarh Ispat express train up to Kesinga/Bhawanipatna, Bhubaneswar-Bolangir and Durg-Puri Intercity to Kesinga and Junagarh Road-Sambalpur passenger train up to Puri via Talcher besides new train service from Junagarh road station to Visakhapatnam, Junagarh road to Nabarangpur, Kantabanji to Nabarangpur via Rajkhariar and Dharmagarh, Junagarh Road to Bhadrachalam, Lanjigarh road to Phulbani via M.Rampur, Kesinga to Bhawanipatna via Utkela, Y-Link G.Ramchandrapur - Narla Road bypassing Lanjigarh Road etc.
But none of these found a mention in the Railway Budget, dashing hopes of locals. However, on the brighter side, the budget sanctioned Rs 2 crore for the proposed electric locomotive workshop at Narla Road, Rs 10 crore for the loop line in Lanjigarh Road station, Rs 5 crore for intermediate block signal between Titilagarh and Kesinga, Rs 5 crore for intermediate block signal between Ambadola- Lanjigarh Road and Rs1 crore for additional loop line in Junagarh Road.
Commenting on the issue, social activist Sumit Raut said the extension of train services will foster commercial and socio-economic development of Kalahandi. There is hope for better railway connectivity to the district as the Railway Minister, MP and local politicians are interested to take the issue forward. President of Chamber of Commerce and Industries, Kesinga, Ramkumar Jain also expressed hope and said there is commercial and technical feasibility of extension of the proposed train services.