RailEnquiry

A railway flyover at Tamulia gate on the outskirts of the town is in the pipeline. The locals have been demanding it for the last one decade. The Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) of South Eastern Railway (SER), R K Kulashrestha, said the work on the flyover is at an advanced stage. With thousands of vehicles including Bhubaneswarbound

buses, school and college buses pass through the level-crossing daily, people face a lot of inconvenience as they remain stranded during the passing of trains. At least 70 trains pass through the route daily. “We are expecting the design and land from the State Government soon. Tenders would be floated once we get them,” he said.

While the Government would provide the land and execute the work, the railways would bear 50 per cent of the project cost. Delay in implementation of the project is being attributed to change in plan and design due to the proposed four-laning of OT Road that connects the railway gate. A state-of-the-art multifunctional complex will also be built at a cost of Rs 1 crore by the Railway Ministry. In the complex, there will be restaurants, food stalls, medicine shops, cellar parking, book centres and ATMs alongside the railway station. These works will be undertaken at the Balasore railway station soon to make it a model one. Kulashrestha said some new ticket-booking counters would be opened to reduce rush at the existing counters. Along with Union Minister of State for Statistics and Programme Implementation and Chemicals and Fertilisers Srikanta Jena, Kulashrestha was here to flag off the Bhadrak-Balasore passenger train on Sunday. On the occasion, Jena had said that besides the Tamulia

bridge, work on the proposed flyovers at Soro and Jaleswar would also be undertaken. Besides, construction of the much-awaited Digha- Jaleswar railway line would start soon. “The land acquisition for the track is in progress in West Bengal. The work will begin once the land is acquired in both Odisha and West Bengal,” he said.