Protest-hit railways mulls shelving of doubling project

BHUBANESWAR: Indian Railways may shelve the Sambalpur-Talcher doubling project if its execution continues to remain stalled due to protests by locals over the decision to close Sambalpur Road railway station.  

Sanctioned in 2011-12, the project was to be executed at an estimated cost of Rs 679.11 crore by 2016-17. Of the total 168.21 km of doubling work between Sambalpur and Talcher Road Station, 85.2 km has already been commissioned. The project has been delayed by over five years as the locals have been protesting the decision to shut Sambalpur Road station, which falls in the alignment for the double-line work. 

The East Coast Railway (ECoR) reasoned that Sambalpur main station is only 1.8 km away and there is no requirement of another station within such short distance. In order to retain the station with the doubling of track, the road by the side of the station will have to be taken over. A railway official said the road is sandwiched between the GM college and station boundary wall and if taken over it will result in blockage of traffic on a stretch of around 2 km from Sambalpur city to Khetrajpur. The thoroughfare on the road will also be severely affected, said an official. 

“There seems to be no alternate solution but close the Sambalpur Road station. Railways has to see the greater development of all. The efforts to find land for an alternative alignment without disturbing Sambalpur Road Station have caused a delay of five years and the project cost has escalated to Rs 1,539.28 crore,” the official said. The project requires 117.661 acre of private land in 96 villages. 

The ECoR has appealed people to cooperate with its decision. “If the project is dropped due to protests, this will seriously affect development of the area. Doubling work, throughput and overall speed and efficiency of trains will be seriously affected. Line capacity will also be affected in future,” the ECoR said in a statement. The locals had recently staged a rail roko after the ECoR notified permanent closure of Sambalpur Road station for passenger traffic from April 1. They claimed the closure will badly hit livelihood of rickshaw pullers, auto-rickshaw drivers and local traders.