Centre allocates Rs 387 cr for railway projects in Orissa

The Government of India has allocated Rs386.73 crore for implementation of existing as well as new railway projects in Orissa in 2010-11. This is against the demand of Rs760 crore made by the state government.

This was informed in the state assembly by Sanjeev Sahoo, minister for commerce & transport.

Out of the total allocation of Rs386.73 crore, Rs120 crore has been allocated for the Khurda-Road Bolangir line, Rs 101 crore for the Haridaspur-Paradeep track, Rs 60 crore for the Lanjigarh Road-Junagarh line, Rs75 crore for the Daitari-Banspani track, Rs 50 crore for the Talcher-Bimlagarh track and Rs22.50 crore for the Angul-Duburi-Sukinda Road track.

It may be noted that the state government had demanded Rs300 crore for the Khurda-Road Bolangir line,Rs200 crore for the Haridaspur-Paradeep line, Rs 40 crore for the Lanjigarh Road-Junagarh line, Rs125 crore for the Talcher-Bimlagarh line and Rs125 crore for the Angul-Duburi-Sukinda Road line.

The expenditure in 2009-10 in the implementation of some of the major railway projects had fallen short of the actual allocation.

As against the allocation of Rs75 crore for the Angul-Duburi-Sukinda Road line, only Rs18.58 crore could be utilized whereas Rs18.58 crore was spent on the Haridaspur-Paradeep track compared to the actual allocation of Rs75 crore.

Similarly for the Khurda-Road Bolangir line, the expenditure in 2009-10 was Rs19.36 crore as against the allocation of Rs28.07 crore.

"The Haridaspur-Paradeep project has not moved ahead significantly due to problems pertaining to land acquisition. Similarly, the Centre is yet to approve the plan for the Phase-II (37-112 km) of the Khurda Road-Bolangir rail link”, the minister said.

The inordinate delay in commissioning the 289-km Khurda Road-Bolangir rail link, mainly due to problems over land acquisition, has escalated the project cost significantly.This rail project was sanctioned in 1994-95 and the project cost which was originally estimated at Rs 1000 crore has now gone up to Rs1500 crore. The Khurda Road-Bolangir rail link project is facing huge cost escalation due to the delay during which the input costs like steel and cement have gone up sharply. Meanwhile, work on the 82-km Paradeep-Haridaspur railway track has hit a delay over the demands of higher compensation by the land oustees.

This project needs 1650 acres in all and more than 75 per cent of the land has already been acquired and handed over to East Coast Railway (ECoR).