Bhubaneswar: The East Coast Railway (ECoR) has appealed to all concerned to assist and cooperate with Railways in the execution of key projects in Sambalpur keeping in mind the greater public interest.
Railways have taken up different developmental works in Sambalpur area. It includes Jharsuguda-Sambalpur-Titilagarh Doubling, Sambalpur-Talcher doubling, Development of Sambalpur and Sambalpur City Stations, setting up off Wagon POH workshop and many others.
The Sambalpur-Talcher doubling work is in full swing. But the project is facing land hurdles. The project was supposed to be completed by 2016-17. But this is being delayed. 117.661 acres of private land involving 96 villages has been requisitioned for land acquisition for the new double line.
The double line work falls on the PF No-1 at Sambalpur Road (SBPD). The road by the side of the SBPD station is sandwiched between GM college boundary wall and station boundary wall. In order to retain the station, with doubling, this road will have to be encroached upon, resulting in blockage of traffic from city to Khetrajpur which is 1.8 km. The thoroughfare on this road will be severely affected.
There seems to be no alternate solution but for closing the Sambalpur Road station. Railways has to see the greater development of all.
As the distance from Sambalpur main Station to Sambalpur Road Station is just 1.8km, this will not create any problems for passengers. Generally, Indian Railways does not have two stations within 1.8 KMs.
Out of a total 168.21 km of doubling work between Sambalpur to Talcher Road Station, 85.2km of section has already been commissioned. In 2021-22 financial year, 173.82 crores have been allocated for the above work.
The project was originally sanctioned in the year 2011-12 at an anticipated cost of Rs 679.11Cr. Efforts to find land for an alternative alignment without disturbing Sambalpur Road Station have caused a delay of 5 yrs and the cost has escalated to Rs.1539.28Cr, now.
If the project execution continues to be obstructed, Indian Railways will be forced to drop the project. This will seriously affect the development of the area. Doubling work, throughput and overall speed and efficiency of trains will be seriously affected. Line capacity will be seriously affected in future.
Hence, the East Coast Railway has appealed all concerned to kindly bear with these adjustments as these are being undertaken keeping in mind the greater public interest.
“The benefits from this large project will be enormous and smooth passenger train services in future,” ECoR said in a press note.
