House panel to urge Railway minister to expedite ongoing projects

Bhubaneswar: The House Committee on Railways of Odisha Assembly on Tuesday unanimously decided to urge the Union Railway minister Suresh Prabhu to expedite construction work of ongoing railway projects which are pending due to various reasons. The Committee is scheduled to meet Prabhu in New Delhi today and submit a memorandum asking for an allocation of Rs 5000 crore for Odisha in the ensuing rail budget.

Talking to media after the Committee’s meeting at the secretariat, senior BJD leader Amar Satpathy said, “We will draw the attention of Prabhu about the pending railway construction works in Odisha. Though the Haridaspur-Paradip project got budget approval way back in 1996-97, it is yet to take off.”

“Besides we will also urge the minister to ask Railway Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL) to complete its project works early,” Satpathy said.

The BJD legislator from Badchana said that the natural resources should be explored with rail links for overall growth of Odisha.

Assembly speaker Niranjan Pujari said that Committee’s members have given valuable suggestions on the draft memorandum and these will be discussed before the final memorandum is prepared.

“The Committee’s mandate is to hand over a memorandum to the PM and Railway minister for different railway projects in Odisha. We will incorporate the suggestions if found worthy,” Pujari stated.