In his reaction to the Railway Budget, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday expressed unhappiness over the token allocation of Rs 1,000 crore only for the proposed railway wagon factory at Sitalapalli in Ganjam district.
When there is a package for the North East and Kashmir regions, Patnaik said, no such special package has been given for Odisha's inaccessible and backward districts with zero railway networks despite the State's commitment to provide land free-of-cost along with 50 per cent of the project cost.
However, the Chief Minister felt relaxed for some of the traditionally neglected railway sections like Sambalpur-Titilagarh and Sambalpur-Talcher which have been given due weightage in the Budget.
He said there is an overall increase of about 53 per cent in the Budget outlay. Odisha has also been correspondingly given an increase in allotment. "Further, due allocations have been made for our ongoing major projects like Khurda-Bolangir, where State Government has committed to provide land free-of-cost and bear 50 per cent of the project cost," he added.