Land issues slow down rail project

ROURKELA: Pressure is mounting on the State Government to expedite land acquisition for the ongoing Bimlagarh-Talcher railway line in the districts of Sundargarh, Angul and Deogarh to speed up completion of the mega project.  Even as the project is being monitored by the Prime Ministers Office (PMO), it is unlikely that East Coast Railway (ECoR) would be able to meet the extended  deadline of December 2022. The 149.78-km project entails a cost of `1,928.07 crore.

According to ECoR reports, 297.125 acres of private land were acquired and direct purchase of 12.56 acres in Angul district was underway till August 2017. Acquisition of private land, alienation of government land and diversion of forest land in all the three districts are either stuck in technical issues or moving at a snail’s pace. 

The target to complete 25 km-stretch from Talcher by mid-2017 has been further extended by a year. Work is in progress in patches up to 40 km from Talcher.
BJPs Bonai unit president Manoj Pradhan said a month ago the party had sent a memorandum to Odisha Governor S C Jamir to direct the State Government to expedite land acquisition with appointment of more land acquisition officers in all the three districts. He said the BJP workers would resort to economic blockade at Bimlagarh and rest of Bonai sub-division in Sundargarh if no step in this regard is taken at the earliest.

Apparently, the NDA Government at the Centre in last the four budgets has sanctioned `682.5 crore against about `200 crore sanctioned between 2004 and 2014. Rail Users’ Association general secretary A C Baral said on October 22, the association members had handed over a memorandum to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik requesting his intervention to speed up the land acquisition for the key railway infrastructure project. He said on completion of the project, the  distance between Rourkela and Bhubaneswar would reduce to about 335 km from the present 462 km via Sambalpur and Talcher. 

The new railway freight corridor would also facilitate the shortest railway link between Paradip Port and North India via industrial and mining belts in Odisha and Jharkhand. Baral said new trains could also be introduced between Rourkela and Bhubaneswar on the new route as the present route via Sambalpur and Talcher remain highly congested. A few months back, Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram had also written to the State Government for simultaneous land acquisition in all districts.