Bhubaneswar July 29 :Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday informed Lok Sabha that 37 railway projects costing Rs 55,219 crore for 4,643 km length, falling fully or partly in Odisha, are in different stages of planning, approval and execution.
Responding to queries from BJD MP Sarmistha Sethi, Vaishnaw said 928 km length of rail line has been commissioned with an expenditure of Rs 16,903 crore till March 2021. He said the projects include 11 new rail lines covering a length of 1,460 km at a cost of Rs 20,346 crore out of which 112 km has been commissioned with an expenditure of Rs 3,789 crore.
A gauge conversion project covering a length of 159 km costing Rs 1,455 crore has been approved for the State and 90 km length commissioned with an expenditure of Rs 184 crore. He said 25 doubling projects covering a length of 3,024 km involving a cost of Rs 33,418 crore have been sanctioned out of which 726 km length has been commissioned with an expenditure of Rs 12,930 crore.
Replying to a starred question by BJP MP Basanta Panda, the Union Minister said the State government has handed over only 141.07 acre of land of around 328.35 acre required for Kalahandi electric loco periodical overhauling workshop to be set up at a cost of Rs 186.37 crore. The project was sanctioned in 2017-18 Budget.
The Railway Minister said completion of any project depends on factors like land acquisition, forest clearance, shifting of infringing utilities, statutory clearances from various authorities, geological and topographical conditions of area, law and order situation in the area of project site, number of working months in a year for particular project site due to climatic conditions.
The budget allocations have been enhanced to Rs 4,568 crore in 2019-20 and Rs 5,296 crore in 2020-21 which are 445 per cent and 532 per cent more than the average allocation of 2009-14 (Rs 838 cr/year) respectively.