BERHAMPUR: The mega freight corridor proposed by the Ministry of Railway will connect seven important points of the State. Aerial survey has already begun in Ganjam district to prepare the feasibility report.
Reply to an RTI query by Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of Rail Ministry reveals that the 1,115 km corridor will connect Balasore, Bhadrak, Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Khurda, Puri and Ganjam in the State.
The Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC), as proposed in 2019 Rail Budget, will originate from Kharagpur in West Bengal and terminate in Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh.
Survey for the corridor was supposed to be taken up in 2021 but since nothing started, RTI activist and advocate B. Sankar Patra of Kabisuryanagar submitted a set of question to the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation seeking information about the mega corridor. Accordingly, the DFCC informed that the mega corridor will connect seven places in Odisha besides Rajahmundry, Visakhapatnam and Nellore.
The proposed corridor will have separate railway tracks and no link with the existing railway line. Though the DFCC has not made it clear what areas of Ganjam through which the corridor will pass through, it will facilitate passengers as well goods between Kharagpur and Vijayawada. Quoting the DFCC reply, Patra said, to prepare feasibility report, aerial survey has been started in Ganjam district.
In the last decade, the Rail Ministry received several proposals to connect new areas of Ganjam but none has materialised. While the wagon factory project at Sitalpalli on the outskirts of Berhampur was shelved, there has been no progress in railway line projects between Berhampur and Sambalpur, Gopalpur and Talcher even as Ganjam district is a major revenue earner for the Indian Railways.
Incidentally, the proposed railway lines are aimed at connecting Parliamentary constituencies of Berhampur, Aska, Kandhamal and Sambalpur but lack of strong demand by the elected representatives has led the proposals to gather dust at the Rail Ministry. However, the DFC could be a reality.