BHUBANESWAR: Odisha government has inked a pact with Ministry of Railways to provide land free of cost for two ongoing new railway lines in the State. In a written reply in Rajya Sabha on Friday, Union Minister for Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw informed that an MoU has been signed with the State government for free land for Khurda Road-Balangir and Jeypore-Nabarangpur new line projects.
The anticipated cost of the 289 km Khurda Road-Balangir project is Rs 3,792 crore. As per the agreement, Odisha government has to provide land free of cost and share 50 per cent (pc) cost of project from 112 km to 289 km from Khurda Road, he said. An expenditure of Rs 1,497 crore has been incurred on the project upto March 2021 and an outlay of Rs 1,000.5 crore has been provided in 2021-22. So far, 92 km (Khurda Road to Mahipur (77 km) and Balangir to Bichupalli (15 km)) of the project has been commissioned.
Work has been taken up in Mahipur-Nuagaon-Buguda (45 km), Purunakatak-Boudh-Sonepur (65 km) and Sonepur-Jahrtarbha-Bichupalli (37 km). The project involves acquisition of 6,162 acre land and diversion of 1,844 acre forest land, out of which 5,667 acre land has been acquired and diversion of 170 acre forest land has been completed. The State government has to acquire 495 acre land and make diversion of 1,674 acre forest land. Similarly, the 38-km Jeypore-Nabarangpur has been sanctioned on cost sharing basis with Odisha government in which the State will provide free land and share 50 pc construction cost of the project.
The latest project cost is Rs 748 crore of which an outlay of Rs 15.7 crore has been provided in 2021-22 Budget. The project involves land acquisition of 772.19 acre private, 87.77 acre government land besides forest land diversion of 9.7 acre.
“Land acquisition work has been taken up for the project and work will start soon,” he said. The Minister stated that the average annual Budget allocation for infrastructure projects and safety works, falling fully/partly in Odisha has been enhanced to Rs 4,126 crore per year during 2014-19 from Rs 838 crore during 2009-14. At an average of 147.29 km per year, a total 1031 km of line has been commissioned during 2014-21 against 267 km of line at an average rate of 53.4 km per year during 2009-14, he added.