BHUBANESWAR: Railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Friday informed the Rajya Sabha that an outlay of Rs 1,938 crore has been provided for the 301-km-long Khurda Road-Balangir railway line project in the 2025-26 financial year.
In a written reply to a question from Subhasish Khuntia (BJD), the minister said the latest cost of the project has reached Rs 5,089 crore, out of which an expenditure of Rs 4,311 crore has been incurred up to March, 2025. Of the three components of the project, two have been commissioned while work in one part has been undertaken, he said.
Vaishnaw said 106-km-long Khurda Road-Daspalla and 120-km-long Purunakatak-Balangir parts of the project have been commissioned while work for the 75-km Daspalla-Purunakatak stretch of the line has been taken up. The railway line has seven tunnels of a total 11.96 km length. Six tunnels of 7.7 km have been completed while work on one tunnel is going on, he added.
Stating that all the five bridges falling on the railway line have been completed, Vaishnaw said work on five station buildings are under progress.
Besides, the minister said construction of 85-km-long third and fourth line between Salegaon-Budhapank, which is another major railway project of the state, has also been taken up. He said the 23-km-long Salegaon-Rajathgarh line, a part of the project, has been commissioned while land acquisition and forest land diversion for 20 km stretch from Rajathgarh to Dhenkanal have been taken up.
The 34 km stretch from Dhenkanal to Meramundali has already been commissioned while land acquisition and forest land diversion for 8 km Meramundali-Budhapank stretch is under progress.