After Dakota, people demand for bringing PLR locomotives back to Odisha

BHUBANESWAR: After the state government brought former chief minister Biju Patnaik’s iconic Dakota aircraft back to Odisha, people from Gajapati district have demanded the government to install an old locomotive of Parlakimedi Light Railway (PLR) at Paralakhemundi railway station as a mark of respect to the Maharajas who had started PLR in the year 1899-1900.
Muralidhar Parichha, secretary of Apanna Parichha Smruti Sansad, a Parlakhemundi-based socio-cultural organisation, said they have been demanding the East Coast Railway (ECoR) and Odisha government to bring the PLR engine installed in front of the divisional railway manager (DRM) of Waltair division back to Paralakhemundi.
The Railways had brought rail lines to Naupada in 1884. The then Maharaja of Parlakimedi (now Paralakhemundi) had decided to connect his capital Paralakhemundi with Naupada with a light railway and approached the government for sanction. After getting permission for the light railway in 1898, the 39km line was opened on April 1, 1900 by spending Rs 7 lakh.
After the Indian Railways Act, 1890, came into force to this line, Bengal Nagpur Railway (BNR) had taken over the PLR from January 1, 1902.
Presently, seven PLR locomotives have been preserved at Southern Railway headquarters at Chennai, one at Vizianagaram, two in Visakhapatnam, one at Bengaluru, one at Nagpur Narrow Gauge Museum and another at BNR Hotel in Puri.
Bishnu Mohan Adhikari, an independent researcher from Paralakhemundi, said PLR has immensely helped the leaders of Separate Province Movement to move and hold meetings on border areas. They were holding meetings at Paralakhemundi to unite the border areas connecting Andhra Pradesh. It helped Odisha to become a separate state on April 1, 1936, he added.
He said starting from Madhusudan Das to Mahatma Gandhi, many freedom fighters had used this railway company during the freedom movement. “That’s why it is important to install a PLR locomotive at Paralakhemundi as it is the native station of the erstwhile PLR company owned by Maharajas of Gajapati.
In November 2 last year, Gajapati district collector had written a letter to ECoR general manager along with Waltair DRM urging them to establish an Odisha Railway History Museum at Paralakhemundi station and to plinth one PLR loco engine (PLR 697) in front of its native station.
Recently, a model of Paralakhemundi Maharaja’s own rail engine PLR 697 was created at Gajapati Utsav to showcase its past glory.