Naveen seeks Rs 6,500 Cr for Odisha in Railway Budget

ONI Bureau: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has written to Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, seeking Rs 6,500 crore for Odisha in the Railway Budget for the year 2018-19.

In 2017-18 FY, Odisha had received a massive Rs 5,102 crore budgetary allocations in Railways, which was not only the highest-ever for the state, but also was much more than what Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh got.

The CM also demanded 6 new rail lines – (Brahmapur-Phulbani-Sambalpur) (Bargarh-Nuapada) (Bhadrachalam-Malkangiri) (Talcher-Gopalpur) (Gopalpur-Singapur Road New BG line) (Lanjigarh-Talcher). Apart from this, Naveen requested Piyush Goyal to give top priority to proposed rail lines of Khurda-Bolangir, Jeypore-Malkangiri, Malkangiri-Nabarangpur and Talcher-Bimlagarh.

In addition, he has requested the Railway Minister to set up a railway maintenance factory in KBK district and introduce a Humsafar type new AC express train from Khurda road to Mumbai via Sambalpur and name it after Baxi Jagabandhu.

The CM again demanded the Rail Wagon factory in Sitalapalli in Ganjam district and asked for 4 short lines for industrial corridor.