Bhubaneswar: Union Minister of Ashwini Vaishnaw on Thursday called the Railway allocation to Odisha in the union budget as historic even when BJP President Samir Mohanty said the Naveen Patnaik government had to stop grumbling because he had requested.
Overcoming a press conference in Delhi, the train minister said the state received an average RS 834 Crore per year between 2009-2014 during the UPA government administration.
But this number has increased by around five times (rs 4,126 crore per year) by the BJP government from 2014 to 2019.
Vaishnaw said this center has allocated the highest number of Rs 9,734 Crore for the development of the railroad sector in Odisha.
“This allocation is 10 times more than the budget allocation made during the UPA government administration.
The central allocation for the state railroad sector has consistently increased every year during the BJP government government,” Vaishnaw said.
The minister said 50% of the required land had been obtained to carry out the electric Loco Overhauling Workshop (POH) proposed in Narla in Kalangandi.
Project work will begin after getting the remaining land, he added.
The Minister also said that land acquisition and forest permits were two main barriers in implementing delayed railroad projects in Odisha.
He asked the state to accelerate the process of land acquisition.
“There is no scarcity of funds for the train project in Odisha,” Vaishnaw said.
BJP State President Samir Mohanty said the Odisha government has requested Rs 7,600 Crore for the development of the train sector, but the center has allocated RS 9,734 Crore in the budget.
“During the government of the Government of Congress, the country is increasingly ignored.
But the situation has changed now.
This center provides more money than those that have been requested by the state,” Mohanty said.
The Kanungo Pongress Leader said that the allocation of large funds was not a big thing if the train could not complete the project on time.
“Working on a new project of Khurda Road-Balangir began 20 years ago, but the job was not finished,” Kanungo said.
BJD leader Amar Prasad Satpathy said the country did not get the right allocation compared to what trains from the country.