Former Deputy Speaker of the State Assembly Rama Chandra Panda has reiterated his demand for running of a daily DMU train directly from Brahmapur to Puri to benefit thousands of people of Ganjam, Gajapati and Balugaon area.
People of these areas who usually visit Puri frequently to conduct various customary rituals or religious ceremonies and witness some of the key events of Lord Jagannath are forced to stay overnight in hotel since they do not have a regular DMU train directly to Brahmapur from Puri to return home the same day, Panda said.
He further said he had written a letter earlier to the Union Railway Minister requesting him to extend one of the three DMU trains currently running between Brahmapur and Palasa up to Puri every day, as an alternate measure with revising the time schedule.
However, the demand for a direct regular train from Puri to Brahmapur still remains unheeded, he lamented. Panda said that he had submitted several memorandums in the past and met and discussed more than once with the Railway authorities in the matter, but in vain. Similarly, he further demanded for introduction of a direct daily superfast train from Brahmapur to Delhi.
Due to absence of a regular/daily direct train from Brahmapur to Delhi, the people of Brahmapur- the commercial and educational hub of south Odisha- are facing a lot of difficulties both in terms of money and time. Either they have to board a Delhi-bound train from Khurdha or Bhubaneswar facing a lot of inconvenience.
He also demanded to allocate the required fund on priority basis to start the proposed Rairkhol rail line work soon, so that several towns of Ganjam such as Hinjili, Aska and Bhanjanagar along with tribal districts like Phulbani and Boudh will find a place in the railway map of the country.