Odisha's Development Is PM's Commitment: Vaishnaw After Inaugurating Station, Rail Line

Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Saturday inaugurated the Daspalla station in Odisha's Nayagarh district and the Nuagaon Road-Daspalla line.

Vaishnaw also flagged off four trains that have been extended till Daspalla. These trains are Bhubaneswar-Nayagarh Town Express, Bhubaneswar-Nuagaon Road Passenger Special, Puri-Nuagaon Road Passenger Special and the Bhadrak-Nayagarh Town MEMU.

Speaking at the inauguration function in Daspalla, he said Odisha's development is Prime Minister Narendra Modi's commitment. "PM Modi is continuously working to ensure rail, telecom towers and highway connectivity for 4.5 crore people of the state," he said.

Nuagaon Road-Daspalla line is part of the Khurda-Balangir railway project, which Vaishnaw described as historic and said its work was expedited under Modi's leadership. When fully complete, the Khurda-Balangir line would connect coastal Odisha with the western region of the state. Claiming that railway line of only 50 km was constructed per year during the UPA government, Vaishnaw said it increased to 450 km during the BJP-led NDA government.

"While the UPA government was allocating Rs 800 crore per year for railway infrastructure development in Odisha, the Modi government has raised it to Rs 10,000 crore a year," he said. Vaishnaw said that he would ask the East Coast Railway (ECoR) to run a special train from Daspalla, Nayagarh and Nuagaon to Puri during Ratha Jatra. He also promised the people of Phulbani that the town would be included in the Gopalpur-Rairakhole corridor.

"There should be no politics when it comes to development. When I received the DPR from the Odisha Rail Infrastructure Development Limited (ORIDL), I sent it back, asking to include Phulbani in it," he said. ORIDL, a joint venture company of the state government and the Railways Ministry, is executing five rail projects in Odisha. Last year, the District Railway Action Committee (DRAC) of Kandhamal sent representations to PM Modi, CM Naveen Patnaik and Vaishnaw demanding a station at Puhlbani. Phulbani was dropped in the DPR (detailed project report).

In the morning, Vaishnaw visited the Bhubaneswar railway station, and took stock of the infrastructure development works that are underway there.