Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday sought from the Railway Ministry an allocation of Rs3,160 crore in the Railway Budget 2014-15 to complete the delayed projects and simultaneously augmentation of rail infrastructure in the State.
During his meeting with Railway Minister D V Sadananda Gowda, Patnaik also stressed on completion of all five projects sanctioned between 1994-95 and 2010-11. “The Railway Minister said he will certainly try and expedite all these works including the much-delayed Khurda Road-Balangir project,” Patnaik said after half-an-hour meeting with Gowda.
“I have urged the Minister to allocate Rs3,160 crore for Odisha in the Railway Budget for 2014-15 towards expansion and improving railway coverage,” he added. To ensure smooth movement of freight, the Chief Minister sought doubling of saturated railway lines in the State. They include the Talcher-Sambalpur, Sambalpur-Titlagarh-Raipur, Cuttack-Barang- Rajatgarh and Jakhapura-Keonjhar-Bansapani sections.
Besides, he reiterated the State’s demand for a wagon factory in Ganjam and a wagon maintenance workshop in Kalahandi. In view of increasing passenger movement during the Nabakalebar festival in Puri in 2015, Patnaik urged the Railway Minister for completing the doubling work of Khurda Road-Puri line and Khurda Road junction bypass and modernisation of Bhubaneswar railway station.