In latest round of BJD-BJP discord, railway line the trigger

In December 2018, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, while addressing a public meeting at Padampur, had announced sanctioning of the railway line by the Centre.

“Contrary to the announcement by Pradhan ji, the Ministry of Railways in 2019 communicated that the proposed new line has been shelved as it didn’t appear to be financially viable, despite the high rate of return (percentage ratio of the net gain over the initial anticipated investment), which is beyond the requirement for approving a new line,” said Sahu in a letter to Vaishnaw.

Months after shelving the project, the Railway Board on October 10, 2019, had asked the state government to contribute free land and rehabilitation cost for land acquisition for considering the project. The state government agreed to providing free land for the entire project and also pledged Rs 300 crore towards the construction cost.

Sahu said despite the Odisha government coming forward to offer all cooperation, the project is still waiting to advance from paper work and surveys through other agencies.

Emphasising the need for the railway project, the Odisha minister said it can offer an important communication link to the people of Bargarh and Nuapada and act as a potential catalyst for rapid economic development of the region.

“With this new line, the western Odisha region will get a shorter and quicker connectivity with the coastal Odisha through the Khurda-Balangir line,” Sahu said.

Given the benefit the new line will offer, the Commerce and Transport Minister also asked the Railways Minister to reconsider the project and allocate funds to start construction work immediately.

On the minister’s letter, Bargarh MP and senior BJP leader Suresh Pujari said the ball is in the state’s court as the survey for the required land is yet to be completed. “Before blaming the Railways, the state government should inform people when the land survey taken up by state-led joint venture would be completed and when are they going to acquire and hand it over to the Central Government,” Pujari said.

The cost of the new rail line with total length of 142 km was estimated at Rs 2,400 crore.