Odisha CM demands more trains in current Railway Budget 2018
On Thursday, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said that the Center should immediately fulfill the just demands of the state for a daily Rajdhani to Delhi via Sambalpur and a new pair of trains to Allahabad and Mumbai.
In his reaction on the Budget for the railway sector, CM said that his government is expecting that the just demands of the state like daily Rajdhani services via Sambalpur, a train to Allahabad from Balangir and a new daily express train to Mumbai in the name of Paika leader Baxi Jagabandhu will be announced immediately.
“Odisha contributes a major chunk of the Indian Railways’s earning and it is natural that it should get its due share,“ the CM said, adding, “While the outlay for Odisha in the railway sector is yet to be known, we hope this year the allotment will be made as per our demand.”
The CM said that spending by Railways in Odisha is worrisome. “The actual expenditure by Railways in Odisha is low and it is expected to be below 60 per cent of the Budget outlay for the entire year, similar to the trends in the recent past, which is worrisome.”
Further the CM lamented, “Announcements were made on re-development of 600 railway stations. Two years ago the announcement was made for 400 stations, but nothing has happened in this sector, especially for Odisha.”
He said though the state government has offered to make the Bhubaneswar railway station a world class station funded by the state and on state government land, Railways has not come forward to sign the MoU in this connection.
IIM Sambalpur
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