Rail Projects Worth Rs 50,000 Cr Under Planning, Execution In Odisha: Rail Minister

New Delhi: Railway projects worth Rs 50,000 crore are under various stages of planning, approval and execution in Odisha, the Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

Minister of Railways Piyush Goyal shared this information in Lok Sabha while referring to 36 projects worth 49,984 crore for 4,567 km.

Responding to questions from Sangeeta Kumari Singh Deo (BJP) about the status of the Khurda-Balangir rail project and if there was an inordinate delay in completion of the work, the Minister said factors such as land acquisition, forest clearance etc affect the completion time of the project.

He said that 92 km of the 289 km Khurda Road-Balangir rail corridor project has been completed and commissioned. Goyal said that land acquisition and forestry clearance have been taken up in the balance section and work has been taken up in available land.

The project is being executed at a cost of Rs 3798.80 crore and the expenditure incurred up to March 2019 is Rs 1327.09 crore. The Minister said Rs 350 crore has been provided in the 2019-20 budget.

Goyal said 10 new line projects totalling 1269 km are under execution and 80 km of the total length has been commissioned entailing an expenditure of Rs 4260 crore by March 2019.

Talking about doubling work, the Railway Minister said 494 km out of 3159 km has been completed involving Rs 8,246 crore.