While responding to the warm reception given by the people of Bonai on Saturday in his maiden visit to native Sundargarh district after becoming the Union Minister for Tribal Affairs, Jual Oram said though he has a plan for the overall development of the district, but his priority would be early completion of the much-awaited Talcher-Bimlagarh railway line.
It is to be mentioned here that the demand for Talcher-Bimlagarh railway line is more than 50 years old. late Biju Patnaik had given maximum emphasis on the project. Even going one step ahead, he had assured that the State will bear half of the project cost if Paradeep Port was directly connected with Rourkela. But anticipating that the project would hamper the interest of Haldia Port, the anti- Odisha conspirators put the file in cold store at the Central level for long years. In 1990, while Kanhu Charan lenka was Union Railways Minister, he had managed to get nod of the Planning Commission for the execution of the project but again it he could not succeed due to red tape.
later, in 1996, former Union Minister Dilip Ray had succeeded in prevailing upon the then Railways Minister Ramvilash Paswan for the execution of the project. In 1997 the Minister had ordered for survey of the project.
But surprisingly, the survey report went against the feasibility of project. Disheartened, Ray had again taken up the matter while he was the Steel Minister with the then Railways Minister Nitish Kumar.
The project had got nod from both the Union Ministry of Railways and the Planning Commission in 2004.
But no eye catching progress was made in respect of the project as the budgetary allocation for it was a paltry Rs 96 crore against the project cost of Rs 786 crore. And out of this Rs 96 crore, Rs 52 crore was paid to State Government for land acquisition. But the State Government had only spent Rs 15,16,4187 in acquiring 27 km of land as replied by the former Revenue Minister in the State Assembly on December 9, 2013.
Surprisingly, the former MP of Sundargarh could not take any satisfactory step for the advancement of the project though it is an important project from commercial and passengers' points of view. Besides this rail project, Oram said his other priorities would be on four laning of Rajamunda-Panikoili (NH-215) road, Kaleiposh-Koira road via Tensa and Barsuan, Nuadihi-Keonjhar road, Gurundia-Jarda road and improvement of the hospitals in Bonai sub-division.
Regarding Khandadhar, he said his stand on mining in Khandadhar hills remain unchanged. If necessary he will take up the matter with the Ministry concerned, he assured.