Centre allocates Rs 5,252 Cr for Railway Infrastructure of Odisha

Bhubaneswar, February 7: Odisha recieves railway infrastructure development budget which costs around Rs 5,252 Crores. Centre has allocated Rs 5,252 Cr for the railway infrastructure development in Odisha, Umesh Singh, the general manager of East Coast Railway said.

The allocation made during the 2018-19 fiscal is about Rs 150 Crores more than the previous year's allocation. In 2017-18, Odisha had received Rs 5102 Crores for the Railway sector, he added.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had earlier placed a demand of Rs 6,500 Crores before the Centre for railway infrastructure development during 2018-19 fiscal.

CM Patnaik demands included metro rail lines for the Twin Cities of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar, six new rail lines for Brahmapur-Phulbani-Sambalpur, Bargarh-Nuapara via Padmapur, Bhadrachalam-Malkangiri, Talcher-Gopalpur, Gopalpur-Sangapur road and Lanjigarh-Talcher.

"They have ignored the demands made by the state. After all, Indian Railways earns about Rs 15,000 Crores from Odisha every year," BJD spokesman P K Deb said.

Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, on the other hand thanked PM Modi, Finance Minister Jaitley and Railway Minister Piyush Goyal for the allocation of Rs 5252 Crores against the previous UPA government's annual average allocation of only Rs 838 crore for Odisha.