Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today placed a demand before the Union Minister of Railways, Piyush Goyal to sanction railway projects in Mayubhanj district. In a letter, Patnaik mentioned that Mayurbhanj district was a rich princely State prior to Independence and always had a large rail network.
The Indian Railway has not invested much to expand the rail network which was existing in the then princely State of Mayurbhanj, the letter read stating further that even after 70 years of Independence, only the work for guage conversion on the existing single line of 90 km between Rupsa to Bangiriposhi was taken up in 2006.
“The existing Rupsa-Bangiriposhi line on one end connects to Howrah-Chennai trunk route at Rupsa but ends as a dead end at Bangiriposhi on the other side. As a result, trains only ply from Rupsa side and come back to the same point with no connection to Tata Nagar side,” wrote Patnaik.
"Though Indian Railway had previously sanctioned a missing link of 50 km between Buramara (Odisha) to Chakulia (Jharkhand), the proposal has been dropped from sanctioned list on grounds of lack of financial viability. Another survey for 42 km line between Bangiriposhi and Gorumahisani has been completed but the project has not been sanctioned by railways citing low rate of return," the letter mentioned.
“As the projects are missing links of the existing network and are potential routes, I request the ministry to sanction the project of Bangiriposhi-Gorumahisani in Mayurbhanj and Buramara-Chakulia in Odisha and Jharkhand to provide much-needed connectivity,” said Patnaik while offering land free of cost for the projects under Odisha jurisdiction.