Bhubaneswar: In a bid to provide railway connectivity to tribal population of Malkangiri, Koraput and Nabarangpur districts, the state government has urged East Coast Railway (ECoR) to begin land acquisition process for Jeypore-Malkangiri and Jeypore-Nabarangpur railway line projects.
State Commissioner Rail Coordination (CRC) Manoj Kumar Mishra has written a letter to ECoR general manager Umesh Singh in the backdrop of a directive given at a high-level meeting under the chairmanship of Cabinet secretary to review the progress made on projects taken up in Maoists-affected area.
“Both the railway lines cover three districts of Nabarangpur, Koraput and Malkangiri with tribal population as well as Left Wing Extremists (LWE) affected areas. They are to be completed in targeted time frame as per the MoU,” Mishra said in his letter.
Stating that Jeypore-Nabarangpur project detailed estimate has also been sanctioned by the Centre, the CRC said, “It was revealed that no land requisition has been received by the special land acquisition office at Jeypore in Koraput for any of these projects.”
As land acquisition is a time-taking process as per the Central Act, the state government has requested the ECoR to take up the matter with the construction wing for filing requisitions at an early date to enable the special land acquisition officer to start preliminary works for acquisition of land.
Earlier, state transport minister had written a letter to the railway minister in this regard.
ECoR officials stated that the process for land acquisition has already been started. “We have started the survey work and the land acquisition process. Our engineering staff are supervising the work. However, the process is hampered due to heavy rain in the area,” senior public relations officer Nirakar Das told Orissa POST.
October 10 last year, the state government had signed an memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Railways for execution of the two new railway line projects of Jeypore -Malkangiri and Jeypore –Nabarangpur in the presence of former railways minister Suresh Prabhu and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in New Delhi.
As per the agreement, the state government will bear 25 per cent cost on development of the 130-km Jeypore-Malkangiri railway line project. For the 38-km Jeypore-Nabarangpur track, the state government will bear the entire cost of land required for the project along with 50 per cent of the development cost. The projects are targeted to be completed within two years.
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