Berhampur: Three people’s organisations of Paralakhemundi in Gajapati district have demanded renaming of the train running from Puri-Gunupur via Paralakhemundi as ‘Parala Gajapati Express’ and Gunupur-Visakhapatnam train as ‘Bansadhara Express’.
Paralakhemundi Senior Citizen Manch (PSCM), Apanna Paricha Smruti Sansad (APSS), Gajapati Zilla Nagarika Sangha submitted a memorandum citing their demand to general manager of East Coast Railway (ECoR) Manoj Sharma and DRM, Visakhapatnam Sourav Prasad during their visit to Paralakhemundi railway station on Thursday.
They pointed out that Naupada-Paralakhemundi gauge line in the title of Parlakimedi Light Railway (PLR) was owned by Maharaja of Paralakhemundi. It was the first private railway company in Odisha opened on April 1, 1900.
Maharaja Goura Chandra Gajapati Narayana Deb II of Paralakhemundi laid the narrow-gauge railway line from Naupada Junction to Paralakhemundi in 1898-99. His son Maharaja Krushna Chandra Gajapati, the first Premier of Odisha, extended this narrow-gauge railway line from Paralakhemundi to Gunupur in 1930.
Maharaja Gopinath Gajapati also launched a crusade for gauge conversion as an MP for decades. Naming of Puri-Gunupur train as ‘Parala Gajapati Express’ would be a tribute to the royal family, they said.
They also demanded extending the Gunupur-Visakhapatnam train upto Vijayawada or Guntur to facilitate the passengers.
“Paralakhemundi railway station, the first Royal Lite Railway Station of Odisha that was built in 1899, should be refurbished to increase its heritage value and a museum on railways history should be set up to depict the glorious past of the Railways in Odisha,” they said.
They also demanded that PL 697 locomotives plinthed as part of the centenary celebrations of BNR in 1988 outside DRM office in Visakhapatnam should be brought back to Paralakhemundi.
The other demands include completion of platform number 1 at Paralakhemundi railway station, construction of platform number 2 and a Foot Over Bridge (FOB), a loop line and development of infrastructure facilities for drinking water and electricity supply inside the railway station complex.
