The people of this tribals-dominated, backward district of Mayurbhanj, of late, seem to be showing greater awareness on railway.

They feel neglected on this front, and, thus, demand faster development of railway network in the district.

Even though it was more than a 100 years ago that the erstwhile princely State of Mayurbhanj, for the first time, proudly carved out a place for itself in the railway map of the then British India, when Rupsa-Bangriposi and Tata-Badampahar railway lines were constructed and trains did run on those railway tracks; no worth-mentioning development in this regard took place in the next 100 years.

It was only in the first decade of this century that Baripada-Bhubaneswar Superfast Express and, then, only a few months ago Bhanjpur-Puri weekly train began plying. Still, much remains to be done in this district, as far as spreading of railway network, construction of railway lines, introduction of new trains and the timings of the presently-running trains are concerned.

Against this backdrop, the district’s political leaders, cutting across party lines, have demanded railway connection of Bangriposi-Gorumahisani and Badampahar-Keonjhargarh, construction of new railway lines like Baripada-Khunta-Udala-Sarat-Nilgiri and Budhamara-Chakulia. If these demands are fulfilled, the sub-divisions of Kaptipada and Panchpeerh, which are presently totally deprived of railway connectivity, will gain access to railway facility and Mayurbhanj people can easily and directly move to the nation’s capital by train, covering a comparatively shorter distance, they argue.

While the BJP district unit, in an important district executive meet at Udala, raised these demands, the BJD too, in its recently-held extended district executive meeting at Baripada, echoed similar sentiments. The Congress and the JMM have also made these demands. BJP leaders like Nihar Modi and Naveen Ram, BJD leaders like Debashish Mohanty and Jitendra Mohanty, Congress leader Niroj lochan Dash and JMM leaders Kalinga Keshari Jena and Fagu Hansdah have been quite vocal on the issue.

Political parties apart, different socio-cultural organisations too have started creating public awareness here about this. They also speak of the need to start and speed up the construction work of the proposed Kharagpur-Bhadrachalam railway line, which is going to benefit the Mayurbhanj people, as it is to pass through Suliapada, Baripada, Udala etc of this district. If all these demands are met, sooner rather than later, the lifeline (railways) of Mayurbhanj will really come alive and the pace of development in this long-neglected district will definitely gain momentum, they opine.