Title - Bhakta’s dream project comes true after 21 yrs

After completion of the much-awaited rail line up to Bhawanipatna four-five months back, the 21-year wait of the the citizens here has finally come to an end with ex-Railway Minister and Kalahandi MP Bhakta Charan Das going to flag off the Bhawanipatna-Rayagada-Bhubaneswar Link Express on Saturday evening.Another train (DMU) will run will also run between Bhawanipatna-Raipur from Saturday night. Initially the two trains have been finalised to run and subsequently the other routes would be expanded, sources informed.The event has been a historical victory for Das as he had put up the rail link  proposal during the regime of VP Singh in 1991 while participating in the Railway Budget discussion as MP of Kalahandi. After 14 months, the VP regime came to an end and the proposal got stuck where it was.After Das assumed office as Railway Minister in Prime Minister Chandra Sekhar’s Government, approximately Rs132 crore was sanctioned for the project by the  Planning Commission. Mohan Dharia was the chairman then.Chandra Sekhar personally intervened in the matter and the Budget was passed in the Parliament. But unfortunately, the Government collapsed after four months.The project practically took off during Narasimha Rao’s Prime Ministership when Kanhu Charan Lenka was at the helms in the Railway Ministry.In 1993 Prime Minister Narasimha Rao laid the foundation stone of Lanjigarh Road railway station during his visit in Kalahandi. Biju Pattnak then was the Chief Minister of Odisha. The then Railway Minister Suresh Kalmadi laid the foundation stone of Bhawanipatna railway station in 1995.Das told The Pioneer that in 1996 Deve Gowda was the PM and Ramvilas Paswan was the Railway Minister. At that time the rail project was completely stuck. Since then till 2009 when he became MP again, no progress was made as there was no cooperation by the railway Ministers or the local MP. The following three years bore fruit after putting in hard labour, he said and thanked the ex-Railway Minister Mamta Banerjee and the present incumbent Mukul Roy who extended their whole support.The 32-km rail link has been connected from Lanjigarh road to Bhawanipatna and it is going to be completed soon up to Junagarh, Das said.