Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Thursday said that the Centre should immediately fulfill the just demands of the state for a daily Rajdhani to Delhi via Sambalpur and a new pair of trains to Allahabad and Mumbai.
In his reaction on the Budget for the railway sector, Patnaik said that his government is expecting that the just demands of the state like daily Rajdhani services via Sambalpur, a train to Allahabad from Bolangir and a new daily express train to Mumbai in the name of Paika leader Baxi Jagabandhu will be announced immediately.
“Orissa contributes a major chunk of the Indian Railways’s earning and it is natural that it should get its due share,“ Patnaik said, adding, “While the outlay for Orissa in the railway sector is yet to be known, we hope this year the allotment will be made as per our demand.”
Patnaik said that spending by Railways in Orissa is worrisome. “The actual expenditure by Railways in Orissa is low and it is expected to be below 60 per cent of the Budget outlay for the entire year, similar to the trends in the recent past, which is worrisome.”
Further the CM lamented, “Announcements were made on re-development of 600 railway stations. Two years ago the announcement was made for 400 stations, but nothing has happened in this sector, especially for Orissa.”
He said though the state government has offered to make the Bhubaneswar railway station a world class station funded by the state and on state government land, Railways has not come forward to sign the MoU in this connection.
PNN
