Chief Secretary Gokul Chandra Pati held a review of the progress of the ongoing railway projects in Odisha at a high-level meeting here on Friday. Pati has directed the Collectors and Superintendents of Police of the concerned districts to provide required assistance in distribution of compensation and ground level operations. He also asked the railway authorities to complete the projects designed for the ensuing Nabakalebar festival at Puri within the scheduled time.
It was decided that the antisocial elements creating bottlenecks in implementation of the projects would be strongly dealt with.
The projects relating to the Nabakalebar include doubling of the Delang-Puri, Khurda-Barang (3rd line), Cuttack-Barang, Raja Athagarh-Barang, Titlagarh-Raipur, Sambalpur-Titlagarh, Sambalpur-Talcher and Bansapani-Tomka-Jakhapura rail lines.
The Chief Secretary asked the railway authorities to make 100-per cent utilisation of the allocations and assess requirement of funds for completion of the projects before the Nabakalebar.
The project of modernisation of the Bhubaneswar railway station was also discussed at the meeting. The project is being funded at the ratio of 50:50 by the Central and State Governments.
The other railway projects like Khordha-Balangir (289 km), Haridaspur-Paradip (82 km), Angul-Sukinda (104.242 km) and Jharsuguda-Serdega coal railway line under the South Eastern Railway were also reviewed in the meeting.
A study report on financial feasibility report of the Angul-Talcher-Chhendipada Common Corridor Project of 162 km was discussed. This corridor would cater to the transport requirement of 32 coal blocks in the area and substantially help the transport of the coalmines. It was that the project would be taken up in partnership among the State Government and the Railways.
Additional Chief Secretary, Finance UN Behera, Secretary, Industries Vishal Dev, Secretary, Steel & Mines G Srinivas, Secretary, Commerce & Transport Sanjay Rastogi, RDC P Meherda, railway officials participated in the deliberations.