Title - House panel concerned over delay in rly projects

The State Assembly House Committee on Railways on Friday expressed its dissatisfaction over the inordinate delay in execution and completion of the ongoing railways projects.As the Railway authorities attributed the slow progress of the sanctioned railway projects to the delay on the part of the State in acquiring land, the House Committee asked the State Government for early constitution of a high-level official committee headed by Revenue Secretary to facilitate land acquisition and transfer to the Railways.However, Chairman of the Odisha Assembly Committee for developement and expansion of railways in the State Speaker Pradeep Kumar Amat asked the East Coast Railway authorities to expedite the project works for completion by utilising the allocated funds within stipulated timeframe.The House Committee met here in the State Assembly premises and reviewed the implementation of different railway projects, utilisation of funds allocated under different projects for the last 5 years and problems in the matter of land acquisition for for the projects.During the review, Speaker Amat asked the East Coast Railway authorities to complete the doubling of the Puri-Khurda Road line before Nabakalevar of Lord Jagannath in 2015. Besides, he also asked them to construct a railway over-bridge on Bhubaneswar-Puri NH-203 in-between Chandanpur and Sakhigopal to avoid traffic congestion.

East Coat Railway Chief Administrator Omkar Singh assured the committee to complete the ongoing doubling work two years before the Nabakalevar — by the end of December 2013. However, he lamented the delay in land acquisition process on the Part of the State Government for various railway projects resulting in slow progress.

After the meeting, Commerce and Transport Minister Subrat Tarai said as per the decision of the committee, a high-level official committee would be formed shortly to facilitate and monitor the land acquisition process meant for various sanctioned railway projects and to report to the House Committee on regular basis.

According to sources, as per the request of the committee the East Coat Railway authorities assured the Speaker to open a separate railway ticket booking counter in the MLA Colony, exclusively for the MLAs, former MLAs, MPs and former MPs and VVIPs. At the meeting, the Speaker asked the Railway authorities to commission the 82-Km Haridaspur-Paradip railway link as more than 75 per cent of the required land has already been handed over to the East Coast Railways.

The committee also discussed the ongoing Lanjigarh-Junagarh, Khurda Road-Balangir, Talcher-Bimalagarh, Jaleswar-Digha, Anugul-Sukinda Road via Duburi line and the ongoing electrification of railway tracks and sought the Railways to complete the projects without further delay.