Sundargarh Pins Hope On Ashwini Vaishnaw To Bring Rail Projects Back On Track

Rourkela: With Ashwini Vaishnaw taking over as Railway Minister, people of Odisha’s Sundargarh are hopeful of getting their long-standing demands fulfilled, which includes completion of the Talcher-Bimlagarh rail link project and a Rail division at Rourkela.

Significantly, Vaishnaw has a Sundargarh connection. The first positing of this 1994-batch Odisha-cadre IAS officer was Bonei, where he served as a sub-collector.

Rourkela Steel Plant Executive Association President Bimal Bisi, who is also a core committee member of Talcher-Bimlagarh Rail Link Action Committee (TBRLAC), has urged the newly appointed Railway Minister to intervene in these matters.

“It has been almost 60 years since the people of Sundargarh are waiting for tracks to be laid between Talcher and Bimlagarh. When the rail link project was sanctioned in 2003-04, the Centre had fixed 2012 as the deadline for completion. This target has been revised thrice because of the slow pace of the work and it is expected to be completed only by 2025,” Bisi mentioned in his letter.

This new rail plan will connect the mineral-rich belt of Odisha with the Port Town Paradip and also help in establishing the shortest rail link between Rourkela and Bhubaneswar, thereby paving the way for the economic progress of the state, he added.

Bisi further said that Rourkela is the largest revenue earner for South Eastern Railways and Bondamunda is the second-largest yard of India. “Therefore, Rourkela deserves to become a Railway division and the demand for the same from various quarters has been long pending,” he added.

Similarly, Pravin Garg, President, Rourkela Chamber of Commerce & Industry (RCCI), also hoped for the completion of the key rail projects during Vaishnaw’s tenure as the Railway Minister.

“We are hoping for early completion of Talcher-Bimlagarh rail link, Railway division at Rourkela and a rail link between Lathikata to Kalunga for raw material transportation,” Garg added.

In a press release, Rourkela Rail Road Users Association President D N Pati and General Secretary A C Boral said that the Ministry is with an MP from Odisha after a long time and they are hopeful that their demand for Rail division at Rourkela would soon become a reality.

In March, the then Minister of Railways Piyush Goyal had said that only the 20-km-long Talcher-Sunakhani section of the project has been completed.

“Work has been taken up in 23.5 km length from Sunakhani station (20 km to 43.50 km) and the state government has to expedite the process of land acquisition and handing over of balance 916-acre land,” he said.

The project is under progress and targeted for completion by June 2022, he added.

In September last year, petitions were filed in the Orissa High Court seeking an early land transfer for the project.