Rourkela MlA Dilip Ray has shot off a letter to Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu to extend the routes of certain trains to Rourkela and Brahmapur.
Ray in his letter mentioned that Odisha remains a neglected State as far as railway services and amenities are concerned as compared to other States. He, however, said that he was grateful to the Centre for highest ever allocation to Odisha of Rs 2,548.22 crore this year surpassing all earlier allocations.
Rourkela being a cosmopolitan city because of the existence of Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) and the National Institute of Technology (NIT) has people from all walks of life coming and settling, Ray said.
The people of north Bihar and eastern UP residing here undergo a great deal of difficulty as no direct connectivity is available to them for their homeward journey and they have to be dependent on Gorakhpur – Hatia Maurya Express which they can board at Hatia only. If this train can be extended up to Rourkela then a big chunk of people will directly be benefited, Ray stated.
Ray further mentioned that he has been urged by a sizeable population of Brahmapur (about 30,000) residing at Rourkela to extend Rajy Rani Express, a tri weekly train, between Rourkela and Bhubaneswar to Brahmapur so that they can have direct access to their home town.
In his justification Ray mentioned that the train leaves Rourkela at 9.20pm and reaches Bhubaneswar next day morning 7.15am and again leaves Bhubaneswar for Rourkela at 11.05pm. Almost for 16 hours it stays at Bhubaneswar. So within this time it can go and come back from Brahmapur which is 166 km from Bhubaneswar.