The Odisha Development Forum (ODF) submitted a memorandum to Railway Minister Ashwani Vaishnaw here on Thursday while he was on his way from Bhubaneswar to Koraput by Hirakhand Express for participating in the BJP’s “Jana Ashirvad Yatra.”
Forum president Rama Prasad Tripathy informed the demands include the construction of a railway terminal at State’s oldest railway station, Brahmapur in order to initiate and terminate long route trains here; overall development of the 130-year-old Brahmapur railway station with better infrastructure, pro-passenger amenities, and construction of a new station building with more platforms at Brahmapur.
The forum requested Minister Vaishnav to start the work of the much awaited rail way projects like Brahmapur-Sambalpur via Phulbani, Gopalpur-Rayagada, Gopalpur-Nayagarh via Buguda and Maa Tara Tarini Shakti Peetha and Gunupur-Rayaguda. The forum also urged upon the Railway Minister to start the work of Jeypore-Malkangiri and Malkangiri-Nabarangpur railway lines in south Odisha on priority basis.
The minister was requested to give special attention to setup Sitalapalli Wagon (Ganjam) Factory and run daily and direct trains from Brahmapur to Mumbai, Surat, Delhi, Puri and other cities and to extend some of the important north-India bound trains terminating at Bhubaneswar and Puri stations up to Brahmapur.
Apart from president Tripathy, vice-president Babita Patra, senior members of the forum V Someshwar Rao, Laxmi Narayan Padhi, Manas Patra, B Shankar Patra, Pritish Panigrahi, Guru Panda, Gupteswar Sadangi, Swarajya Sahu, Saroj Patnaik, Tuna Maharana and Prakash Pradhan were present.