BHUBANESWAR: Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan and Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha flagged off the inaugural run of Bhubaneswar-New Delhi Rajdhani Express via Sambalpur, Jharsuguda and Rourkela through video conference from Railway Board office at New Delhi on Saturday.Speaking on the occasion, Pradhan appreciated the highest ever fund allocation in the budget for infrastructure development of Railways and improvement of passenger amenities in Odisha. The running of the train via Sambalpur has fulfilled the long-standing demand of the people of Western Odisha, he said and added that he had urged the Ministry of Railways to introduce a stoppage of the train at Dhenkanal.
In his address, Sinha said introduction of Rajdhani Express on the new route will greatly benefit a large number of people. Stating that Odisha has been getting its substantial share in the budget, he assured that there will be no fund constraint for development of Railways in Odisha. He also sought the co-operation of State Government for land acquisition so that all pending projects can be expedited.
The weekly 20817/20818 Bhubaneswar-New Delhi-Bhubaneswar Rajdhani Express via Angul and Sambalpur City will have stoppages at Angul, Sambalpur City, Jharsuguda, Rourkela, Chakradharpur, Anara, NSCB Gomoh, Koderma, Gaya, Dindayal Upadhyaya (Mughalsarai) and Kanpur Central stations between Bhubaneswar and New Delhi from both the directions.
A function was organised at Bhubaneswar station on the occasion. State Tourism and Culture Minister Ashok Chandra Panda, Commerce and Transport Minister Nrushingha Charan Sahu, Lok Sabha MPs Prasanna Kumar Patasani, Nagendra Kumar Pradhan, MLAs Bijaya Kumar Mohanty and Priyadarshi Mishra attended.Among others, AGM of East Coast Railway Rajeev Sharma and ADRM of East Coast Railways (Khurda Road Division) SP Dwivedi were present.
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