36 railway projects of Rs 49,984 crore under different stages in Odisha

New Delhi: A total of 36 railway projects costing Rs 49,984 crore for 4,567 km length, falling fully or partly in Odisha are under different stages of planning, approval, and execution.

Replying to a question of Bolangir MP Sangeeta Singh Deo, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal informed the Lok Sabha that 10 new line projects are covering a length of 1,269 km at a cost of Rs 16,598 crore.

Out of which, 80 km length has been commissioned and an expenditure of Rs 4,260 crore has been incurred up to March 2019, he said.

1 Gauge Conversion (GC) project is covering a length of 140 km at a cost of Rs 1349 crore. Out of which, 90 km length has been commissioned and an expenditure of Rs 191 crore has been incurred.

25 Doubling Projects are covering a length of 3,159 km at a cost of Rs 32,037 crore. Out of which, 494 Km length has been commissioned and an expenditure of Rs 8,246 crore has been incurred up to March 2019, the Minister said.

He said the timely completion of any Railway project depends on various factors, like quick land acquisition by State Government, forest clearance by officials of forest department, shifting of infringing utilities (both underground and overground), statutory clearances from various authorities, geological and topographical conditions of area, law and order situation in the area of project site, etc.

Goyal said Railway has taken up work of Khurda Road-Bolangir New Line (289 Km), costing Rs 3798.80 crore.

Expenditure incurred up to March, 2019 is Rs 1327.09 crore and an outlay of Rs 350 crore has also been provided in the Budget 2019-20.

This project is of 289 km length and divided into two parts. 1st part is from km 0 to km 112 and the 2nd part is from km 112 to km 289. 1st part (km 0 to km 112) is fully funded by Railway, while, 2nd part (from km 112 to km 289) is on cost-sharing, in which, the land is to be provided free of cost by Government of Odisha along with sharing 50% cost of construction.

So far, 92 km length of the project has been completed and commissioned. Land acquisition and forestry clearance have been taken up in balance section and work taken up in available land.

In the overall interest of the nation and for smooth execution of work a lot of monitoring is done in Railways at various levels (field level, divisional level, zonal level, and Board level) and regular meetings are held with the officials of State Government and authorities concerned to resolve the issues that are obstructing the progress of railway projects in Odisha.