vishwas dass
post news network
Bhubaneswar, Feb 24: People across the state are banking on new trains in addition to better amenities from the railway budget 2015-16. The consumers also want key infrastructure projects announced recently for Orissa, completed.
The proposed commissioning of four crucial projects – such as wagon factory at Sitapali in Ganjam district, wagon maintenance workshop in Kalahandi, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation’s bottling unit and skill development centre in Koraput district – may generate employment for youths. The Sitapali wagon unit was announced in the railway budget 2012-13 for which `176.3crore was provisioned for East Coast Railway (ECoR). The delay has triggered resentment among people whose expectations were high from the government.
Reliable sources said the state government has offered 101.6 acre land to the railways but the former is yet to get a word from the railway board which decides fate of major projects. “It is disheartening that neither the railways nor the state is making efforts to expedite the projects. The projects could generate huge employment,” said Divyanath Senapati, a passenger.
Feasibility of the multi-crore wagon maintenance workshop project in Kalahandi is being examined by ECoR. Another key project – a bottling plant of IRCTC – is getting delayed due to reasons better known to the Centre’s mini ratna company.
The IRCTC headquartered at Delhi had sought one acre land from Orissa Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (Idco) last year to establish the plant. The plan envisages, maintaining a manufacturing capacity of 6,000 cartons per day at an estimated cost of Rs 12-15crore.
Currently, IRCTC is facing hardships in supplying Rail Neer bottles across Orissa as 4,000 to 5,000 cartons per month are being provided by Bihar’s Danapur bottling plant against a requirement of 1,80,000.
“Yes there is huge dearth of Rail Neer bottles. The supply is erratic as there is no plant in Orissa and we have to depend on the neighbouring plants,” an IRCTC vendor said here.
