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Following is an excerpt from a report in expressbuzz.com.

How justified is the demand to carve out a separate railway division at Rourkela under the East Coast Railway (ECoR)? Given the continuing neglect towards the infrastructure and passenger amenities over decades, the demand is gaining momentum.

With apolitical and political outfits jumping on the bandwagon to seek separation of Rourkela from the Chakradharpur division of the South Eastern Railway (SER), the Railway Ministry is likely to feel the heat ahead.

Train Passenger Steering Committee convener and Rourkela Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Subrat Patnaik in tandem with the members of the Rourkela Development Forum (RDF) and Rourkela Railfanning Association (RRA) are vociferous in their demand. The local BJD unit has gone a step ahead to threaten disruption of mineral transportation by rail if the issue was not sorted out.

Locals feel, in the changed scenario, the triangular districts of Sundargarh, Jharsuguda and Keonjhar – high on industrial and mining activities – would no longer tolerate further neglect as Sundargarh alone annually contributes ` 800 crore to SER.

… Inadequate train services and infrastructure apart, the lingering of the proposed Bimlagarh-Talcher rail link is a stark pointer of neglect, they stated.

Even 10 per cent of the revenue generated from the regions is not spent to benefit a population of over 50 lakh.

RDF and RRA members Dilip Mohanty, Mahendra Mishra, Mihir Swain and Supratik Mishra sent a memorandum to the Railway Ministry over the demand claiming the combined revenue share from these three districts is anything over ` 2,200 crore.  …

The fact that there is an ECOR division in Sambalpur (147 kms from Rourkela) and Chakradharpur (101 kms from Rourkela) should not be a concern as there are many railway divisions that are much closer. In http://www.rourkelacity.com/top-news/rourkelare-rela-division/ it is mentioned that there are separate rail divisions in Varanasi and Mughalsarai that are only 17 kms apart, Guntur and Vijaywada that are 34 kms apart and so on. 

The petition at http://www.petitionodisha.in/transportation/creating-a-new-east-coast-railway-division-at-rourkela/ lists various reasons why a ECOR rail division in Rourkela is needed. Please visit it and sign it.

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There is also a similar need for a railway division in Rayagada or Kesinga/Lanjigarh Rd/Bhawanipatna to cater to existing lines and to the many new lines that are coming up there. The new lines include Naupada-Gunupur and its extension to Therubali and Lanjigarh Rd – Junagarh and its extension to Nabarangpur and Jeypore.  With many people in Viskhapatnam demanding that the VSKP division be split from ECOR, if that happens the Odisha part of the current VSKP division as well the above mentioned new lines should be moved to the proposed division at  Rayagada or Kesinga/Lanjigarh Rd/Bhawanipatna.

In North Odisha with several new lines coming up (Bhadrakk – Dhamara, Chakulia – Buramara, Jaleswar – Digha, ) and with the commencement of broad gauge service in the Rupsa-Baripada-Bangiriposi line a new division in Balasore or Bhadrak is warranted. SER greatly meshed up the Rupsa-Baripada-Bangiriposi line costing Indian Railways significantly. See page 8-9 of 2006-may-CAG report. These parts should also be taken away from SER.

New Lines	2006- 07	2007- 08	2008- 09	2009- 10	2010- 11	Spent until 2009- 10	Remai ning	Total
Khurda- Balangir (289 kms)	23	20	32.34	28.07	120	105.8	474.2	700 Cap
Talcher- Bimlagarh (154 kms)	10	15	10	10	50	37.98	722.8	810.8 Cap
Haridas pur- Paradip (82 kms)	44	20	80	70	101 RVN	21.9 Cap 171.61 RVN	299.83 RVN	21.9 Cap 572.4 RVN
Angul- Sukinda Rd (98.7 kms)	20		60	75	22.5 RVN	20.88 Cap 13.5 RVN	581.62 RVN	20.88 Cap 617.6 RVN
Lanjigarh Rd – Junagarh (56 kms)	19	12	35	30	60	169.31	0.69	170 cap
Daitari – Bansa pani (155 kms)	155.6		20	60	75 RVN	367 cap 671.85 RVN	186.56 RVN	367 Cap 933.4 RVN
Jaleswar- Digha (41 kms)			Did not exist	Did not exist	20 (new)	Did not exist	235.11	255.1 Cap
Buramara – Chakulia with upgrad ation  of Rupsa – Buramara (125 kms)					under progress as an RVNL SPV.			466.5 RVN
Gunupur- Theruvali (79 kms) (Naupada  – Gunupur 90 kms gauge conver  sion is now complete)	N-G 34	N-G 25			Already surveyed. But listed as a soc. desirable project.  Odsiha should push hard for this to be designa ted as a port conn. (to Gopalpur port) project and taken up via RVN SPV.		Odisha govt. has also indicated to push this as a PPP project.
Total allocation on new lines (NL) and gauge conver sion (GC)	Rupsa – B 15.9 Other – 4.1 Total – 325.6 crores	Rupsa – B 35 other – 5 Total – 132 crores	244.34 + 65 = 309.34	275.07+ 36.14 = 311.21	ECOR NL – 428.7 ECOR GC – 5 SER NL – 20 SER GC – 1 Total = 454.7	2004 – 199 crores
New Lines	2006 – 07	2007- 08	2008- 09	2009- 10	2010- 11	Spent until 2009- 10	Remain ing	Total

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(All numbers above are in Crores of Rupees. Cap means Capital expenditure and RVN means expenditure through Rail Vikas Nigam.)

2006 had a big allocation of 155.6 crores just for Daitari-Bansapani for its completion. With that done, in 2007 Lalu really screwed [pardon my language!] Odisha with respect to the new lines by having a total budget on new lines and gauge conversion of only 132 crores. (There may have been another 20 crores in that budget in the green book.) Things picked up a bit in 2008 and 2009 and finally now, it is at a decent state.

Now we must make sure that by next year there is approval of Buramra-Chakulia and increase in the allocation for all the other projects that are not completed or about to be completed. A sample projected budget (for new lines) that we should aim for the next seven years is as follows.

	This Yr	Remai ning	2011- 12	2012- 13	2013- 14	2014- 15	2015- 16	2016- 17	2017- 18
Khurda – Balangir	120	474.2	130	130	140	100 Done	Done	Done	Done
Talcher – Bimlagarh	50	722.8	100	120	130	140	150	100 Done	Done
Haridaspur – Paradip	101	300	100	100	100 Done	Done	Done	Done	Done
Angul – Sukinda	22.5	582	40	60	80	100	120	150	50  Done
Daitari – Bansapani	75	187	75	85	20  Done	Done	Done	Done	Done
Jaleswar – Digha	NEW     20	235	30	30	30	60	80  Done	Done	Done
Buramara – Chakulia	0	467	NEW 20	50	50	120	120	120 Done	Done
Gunupur – Theruvali	0	450 (est)	0	NEW 20	50	50	100	120	120 Done
Other new lines: Puri Konark; Nabrangpur-Jeypore; Nabrangpur-Junagarh; Jeypore – Malkangiri; Malkangiri – Bhadrachal am	Lanjigarh Junagarh 60 Done		0	0	NEW1 (1) 20	NEW2 (1) 40  (2) 20	NEW3 (1) 40 (2) 30 (3) 20	NEW4 (1) 60 (2) 60 (3) 40 (4) 20	NEW5 (1)140 (2)130 (3)120 (4) 90 (5) 20
Total	455		495	595	620	630	650	670	670

Other lines that are mentioned in the 2010-11 budget and to be pursued beyond are: Lanjigarh Rd – Phulbani – Talcher, Berhampur – Phulbani, etc.

The link http://www.rvnl.org/project/project_desc.php?id=74 has the following.

NAME OF THE PROJECT–    BURAMARA – CHAKULIA – NEW LINE WITH UPGRADING OF RUPSA – BURAMARA
Plan Head	NEW LINE	PIU	CPM KOLKATA
Rly.	SOUTH EASTERN	Executing Agency	RVNL
State	ORISSA	Funding Source	SPV
Length (Kms)	125.00	Status	Under Development Stage.
GQ/PC	PC	Anticipated Cost (Cr.)	466.48

This is the latest addition to the list of RVNL projects. (15 of 60 projects in that list involve Orissa.)  It is listed as a port connectivity (PC) project. Among the various proposed ports in that area, Dhamra port is closest to be operational. This link will shorten Rupsa-Chakulia distance from 167 kms to 125 kms. More importantly it will bypass the busy Kharagpur junction and provide an alternative path to Tatanagar. It will also provide a bypass of the area that sometimes gets flooded by the Subarnarekha river.

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The following map illustrates the area. (Thanks to Samit for permitting to use this map fragment from his book.)

The following is from SER’s Kharagpur division map.

 

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The complete list of 15 Orissa related projects listed at http://www.rvnl.org/project/project.php are: 

1. (11) KHARAGPUR (NIMPURA) – BHUBANESWAR (GQ electrification – completed)
2. (12) BHUBANESWAR – KOTTAVALASA ELECT (GQ electrification – completed)
3. (14) TALCHAR-CUTTACK-PARADEEP DOUBLING WITH 2ND BRIDGE ON RIVERS BIRUPA AND MAHANADI (GQ doubling completed)
4. (15) DAITARI – BANSPANI NEW LINE (Port connectivity completed)
5. (19) ANGUL – SUKINDA NEW LINE (Post connectivity – under development)
6. (20) JAKHPURA- HARIDASPUR 3RD LINE DOUBLING (Port connectivity – recently sanctioned)
7. (26) RAJATGARH – BARANG DOUBLING (GQ – work in progress)
8. (27) CUTTACK – BARANG DOUBLING (GQ – work in progress)
9. (28) KHURDA ROAD – BARANG 3RD LINE DOUBLING (GQ – work in progress)
10. (44) HARIDASPUR – PARADEEP NEW LINE (Port connectivity – work in progress)
11. (53) TOMKA -BANASPANI – RE (Port connectivity, electrification, recently sanctioned)
12. (54) SAMBALPUR – TITLAGARH – DOUBLING (Port connectivity, recently sanctioned)
13. (55) RAIPUR – TITLAGARH – DOUBLING (Port connectivity, recently sanctioned)
14. (60) BANASPANI – JAKHPURA – DOUBLING (Port connectivity, electrification, unsanctioned)
15. (63) BURAMARA – CHAKULIA – NEW LINE WITH UPGRADING OF RUPSA – BURAMARA (port connectivity, new line, under development)

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 With the Gopalpur port getting ready, RVNL should be soon taking up the Gunupur-Theruvali line.