Bhubaneswar: almost two years after signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Indian train and the state government for rebuilding the Bhubaneswar train station, almost no progress in the project.
Even the tender hasn’t floated yet.
In December 2016, the government had approved the Development Authority of Bhubaneswar (BDA) for the implementation of the Railway Station Multimodal Hub project in the city.
For this, the passenger reservation system (PRS) and the booking counter shifted to a temporary building near the RMS office in November 2016.
The previous design was postponed and the project executive agent was changed.
In September 2017, the Government and East Coast Railway (ECOR) discussed the project.
BDA is authorized to prepare designs with the help of famous agencies.
After a lot of delays and changes in date, the MoU between the train and the state government was signed on September 19, 2019 in New Delhi.
“The deadline for this multimodal hub is 30 months.
Even after 22 months, there is no better progress made in this direction.
BDA has given a picture of a project last year.
We have agreed to and send it to the urban body.
Ecor has given a letter to The state government in April this year to accelerate the project, but nothing was done in this matter, “said a senior train officer.
Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban G Mathi Vathan said the tender had not floated.
“This project is in the design and development stage.
BDA is working on it.
After the delay in the signing of the MoU, Covid-19 was delaying further.
Now we are involved in Covid management.
The government will receive a call about this,” Vathan said.