Bhubaneswar: The train Ministry has approved the Principle Approval to the Bansapani-Barbil Railway line project to take pre-investment activities that subjugated 100% of funds by the Odisha government.
This project has been identified by Odisha Rail Infrastructure Development Limited, an Odisha government joint venture (51%) and the train Ministry (49%), for development.
The UNION Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told Lok Sabha on Wednesday that the project would reduce the distance between Barbil and steel generator in Kalinga Nagar in Odisha.
“Because this project has not been approved, there are no funds provided for the financial year – 17-17,” he said.
Vaishnaw also told the house about the new line project Digha-Jaleswar (41 km) approved in 2010-11.
The anticipated project costs are Rs 1,584 Crore, he added.
“The project execution cannot be taken because the West Bengal government has not taken land acquisition in the portion in that situation,” he added.
In his reply, the minister said the completion of any train project depends on various factors such as the acquisition of fast land by the state government, forest clearing, shift in violations, legal permits from various authorities, regional geological and topographic conditions, laws and order situations at the project site and the number of work months in a year on certain project sites due to climate conditions.
He said all of these factors vary from the project to project and influence their settlement time.
“Therefore, there is no confirmed project resolution time line can be ascertained at this stage.
However, the train does all efforts to complete these early projects,” he said.