Former Finance Minister Prafulla Chandra Ghadai has severely criticised the Union Government for taking out the Waltair Division from the East Coast Railway (ECoR) and merging it in the newly-created South Coast Railway. “While the Railways is earning huge amounts of revenue from mines and industrial sectors of the State, it is very disappointing it has weakened the East Coast Railway. The move is a sheer Central negligence against Odisha,” said Ghadai in a statement.
He said taking south Odisha’s Bilashpur and Chakradhar railway division into the South Coast Railway is a mockery of Odisha only.
Ghadai demanded that all south Odisha divisions be brought back to the Odisha East Coast Railway and two new railway divisions at Rourkela and Jajpur Raod be set up under the ECoR soon.