The Assembly House Committee on Railways would meet Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu on Wednesday to place Odisha’s demand for adequate allocations for the State in the ensuing Railway Budget.
According to sources, the committee led by Speaker Niranjan Pujari would meet the Union Minister at 3 pm on Wednesday to demand a budgetary provision of `5,000 crore for the State which would help in connecting rail lines and also completing undergoing rail projects.
Earlier, on December 1 last year, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik too had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prabhu appealing to them to for `5,000 crore for Odisha in the Rail Budget 2016-17, citing the State’s enormous contribution to the Railways’ earnings.
In 2015-16 fiscal, the Narendra Modi-led NDA Government had made the highest-ever allocation of `2,514 crore to the State in the railway budget.
Patnaik had stated that the railway route length and density in Odisha was much below the national average as also substantially lower than that in neighbouring States while gross earnings from various stations in the State is estimated to be in excess of `14,000 crore during 2014-15 fiscal.