Railways cut Rs 60 cr for Odisha projects

In yet another blow to rail projects in Odisha, the Ministry of Railways has effected a cut of Rs 60 crore in the state's budgetary allocation for 2012-13, over and above Rs 220 crore which the ministry had pruned in two phases in July and September this year.

While the long-delayed Khurda Road-Bolangir rail link has taken a hit of Rs 15 crore, the budget for Talcher-Bimlagarh line and Sambalpur-Talcher doubling project has been slashed by Rs 15 crore and Rs 30 crore respectively.

Earlier in this fiscal, the budget for Khurda Road-Bolangir rail link was cut by Rs 42 crore while funds for Talcher-Bimlagarh line and Sambalpur-Talcher doubling project were reduced by Rs 32 crore and Rs 44 crore respectively.

 

Irked over the cut in Rail Budget allocation, chief minister Naveen Patnaik had written to the Railway minister in October 2012, stating that such step would lead to discontentment among the people of the state.

“Such reductions time and again would result in delay in completion of railway projects and lead to the discontentment among the people,” Patnaik said in his letter.

In September, the Railways ministry had reduced Rs 34 crore from the budgetary allocation of the state. The money was meant to be spent for the ongoing broad gauge rail link projects which aimed to connect Khurda with Bolangir, Kalahandi with Jharsuguda and Talcher with Bimalagarh.

In June this year, the ministry had cut Rs 186 crore from the original budgetary allocation of Rs 723 crore sanctioned for 2012-13. The allocations were barely 30 per cent of Odisha's demand of Rs 2,345 crore.