When Railway Budget is making a historic debut with the Annual Budget on Wednesday, the revelation is Odisha’s rail plan looks set for picking more momentum as the Railway Ministry has adopted Odisha among the ‘Focus States’ in 2017-18.
For which, Odisha could see more sanctions for the six surveys undertaken during last three years for doubling, tripling or four-laning and a nearly 40 per cent hike could be done for improving passenger amenities under EcoR, mostly in Odisha, over last year’s Rs 79 crore allocation.
Besides, a significant hike is likely in allocation for track renewal over last year’s around Rs 220 crore to boost rail safety.
In 2017-18, Odisha could see significant allocations for new line projects hanging for long like the 270 km Sambalpur - Phulbani - Brahmapur, Junagarh - Ambaguda via Nabrangpur (145km), Banspani - Barbil (17.5km) and Barsaon - Banspani/Narayangarh (52km). Moreover, some new lines like Talcher - Gopalpur, Baragarh - Nuapada, Puri - Konark, Paradip - Dhamra and Talcher - Angul could also be included in 2017-18 Pink Book of the Railways. Future of another long-standing 41-km new line Jaleswar - Digha project, however, looks uncertain for 2017-18, because, land records in some stretches are not available. Besides, four priority projects like Khurda - Balangir, Paradip - Haridaspur, Angul - Sukinda and Talcher - Bimalagarh could see more capital through Extra Budgetary Resources Fund (EBRF), observed sources.
The thrust the Railway Board has for Odisha in the 2017-18 annual outlay looks to be looping in some more districts (tourist and mine-rich) of State to country’s rail map, and the network development plan in all likelihood would see major benefits for the districts of undivided Koraput, Cuttack, Angul and Dhenkanal, added a high-ranking official.
Significantly, the 2022 vision of the Railways for Odisha hints at adding a whopping 906 km new lines and add another around 1,354 km via 16 doubling or gauge conversion projects. Odisha, however, in 2016-17 could see commissioning of 13 km via Rajshunkala - Bolagarh - Nayagarh under Khurda - Balangir new line and commissioned another around 65 km through half-a-dozen doubling projects, revealed EcoR sources and further added that to meet the target, another 121 km new lines would see commissioning by April 2017. In 2016-17, Odisha was allocated Rs 755 crore for eight new line projects - whose total cost is Rs 11, 676 crore and which is around 5 per cent of total new line projects taken up in the country as a whole in 2016-17.
Though the Indian Railways deserves kudos for consistent raising of rail plan outlays for Odisha for two consecutive fiscal years, the State Government too deserves the credit as it has pro-actively signed MoU for a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) with the Railways that paved the way for inclusion of more long-standing critical railway projects of the State this year that were straddling long for the want of funds.
