Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday urged the Centre to sanction railway projects in Mayurbhanj district and offered land free of cost for the purpose.
In a letter to Railways Minister Piyush Goyal, Naveen said, “The existing Rupsa – Bangiriposhi line on the one end connects to the Howrah-Chennai trunk route at Rupsa but ends as a dead end at Bangiriposhi on the other side. With this arrangement, trains only ply from Rupsa side and come back to the same point with no connection to the Tatanagar side, which is on the Howrah-Mumbai trunk route.”
He said the Railways had previously sanctioned a missing link of 50 km between Buramara (Odisha) to Chakulia (]harkhand), to provide connectivity, but unfortunately Railways have now proposed to drop the work from its sanctioned list on the ground of lack of financial viability.
“Similarly, another survey for the same connectivity has been completed for a 42 km line between Bangiriposhi and Gorumahisani. Even for this missing link, work is not being sanctioned by Railways citing low rate of return,” the CM added.
The CM said, “While I understand that financial viability is an important consideration for sanctioning of new projects, it is certainly not the only consideration. On grounds of strategic reasons; provision of missing links; creation of alternate routes and greater social equity, Railways have always been sanctioning important projects.”
The CM requested the Ministry of Railways to sanction the missing link project of “Bangiriposhi-Gorumahisani” in Mayurbhanj, Odisha and “Buramara-Chakulia” in Odisha and Jharkhand to provide the much needed connectivity.
“In order to make the projects more viable, I also offer land free of cost for the Odisha portion of the above projects in the greater interest of the people of Mayurbhanj, who have historically seen better railway connectivity,” the CM further stated in the letter.
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