Rourkela: Tardy land acquisition has come up as a major hurdle for fast execution of the under-construction Talcher-Bimalagarah railway project.
The ambitious railway project has been reportedly moving at a snail’s pace while there has been a mismatch between data on land acquisition provided by the state government and the East Coast Railway.
The project was supposed to be completed by 2019, but its deadline was extended to 2022, it was learnt.
Information available under RTI has details about the 149.78-km railway project.
The project requires 2088.77 acres. Of the land, 1002.61 acres are private land. Only 298.47 acres have been acquired. Besides, 222.48 acres of government land are to be acquired while only 109.42 acres were handed over to the ECOR.
Besides, the project will pass through 663.78 acres of forest land while the process to hand over 59.31 acres has been completed.
The latest report says, in last 16 years the state government has only handed over 466.79 acres to the ECOR by June 5, 2019.
1621.70 acres are yet to be acquired for the project. It was in 1969 when Chhatra Kiyanustan Committee, an outfit of local students, had built up a movement over the project.
Since then, agitations are being carried out over the inordinate delay of the project. Then Chief Minister Rajendra Narayan Singhdeo had taken serious note of the students’ movement for the important railway project.
The Chief Minister along with some MLAs had then met the then Prime Minister over the issue. A resolution on the railway project was passed in the Assembly. The Chief Minister and the MLAs had then submitted the proposals to the Prime Minister.
Now, Rail Sangram Samiti, a local outfit, has held the state government responsible for the delay of the railway project.
The railway project will pass through Angul, Deogarh and Sundargarh.
81.65 km railway line will be built in Angul; 32.1 km in deogarh and 34.73 km in Sundargarh district.
Samiti said that a delegation of the Samiti had in 2018 met then commerce and transport minister Nrushinga Sahu. Sahu had claimed that the state government had acquired land for 60 km of railway line from Talcher.
At that time, then railway project officer RS Dubey claimed that only land was available for 43 km.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had held review meetings over the progress of the railway project in 2013 and 2014. The Chief Minister had directed the Collectors concerned to hasten the land acquisition.
Members of Samiti demanded that both the state and central governments should take expeditious steps for completion of the project.
PNN
