Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday urged the Centre to consider expanding the jurisdiction of East Coast Railway (ECoR) to unify Odisha under one zone.
As part of the reorganization, the Chief Minister has also demanded the Union Ministry of Railways for creating three new railway divisions at Rourkela, Jajpur-Keonjhar Road and Rayagada under the ECoR to help the railways improve delivery of services.
"The expansion of ECoR has become a necessity in the light of the recent industrial projects coming up in Odisha to ensure better coordination and facilitation of bulk customers," Patnaik said in a letter to Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal.
Pointing out that the reorganization will help meeting the ‘requirements of large and medium freight customers the aspirations of amenities for people and expedite project works’, Patnaik said it would help ‘create a lot of synergy and reduce barriers in coordination as well as mobility which is the major objective of the Railways today’.
This apart, the CM also opposed the Centre's move for setting up a new Railway Zone in Andhra Pradesh (AP) by taking out the existing Waltair Railway Division from the jurisdiction of ECoR.
Patnaik pointed out that a Committee of Senior Officers set up by the Railway Ministry in 2013-14 had rejected the proposal of dividing ECoR on grounds that creation of artificial barriers was impending growth of railways.
It is to be noted that Odisha succeeded in getting its first and the only existing railway zone, the ECoR in 2003 with 3 divisions namely Khurda Road, Sambalpur and Waltair under its jurisdiction with its headquarters at Bhubaneswar.