The Centre has allocated Rs 10,000 crore for development of railways in Odisha in the Union Budget for FY 2023-24, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Friday.
Speaking to mediapersons in Delhi, Vaishnaw said the Odisha government had demanded Rs 8,400 crore for development of railways in the state. However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has allocated Rs 10,012 crore to the state, he said.
The minister also announced that the 'Bande Metro' train will be introduced soon between Bhubaneswar and Puri. The Lingaraj Temple Road station near Bhubaneswar airport will be redeveloped so that the Bande Metro can be run from the station to Puri.
With the introduction of Bande Metro, devotees who are arriving at the airport can directly visit Puri to have darshan of Lord Jagannath, Vaishnaw said.
The minister also informed that 57 railway stations in Odisha will be modernised while about 280 km length of new railway line will be constructed during the next financial year.
According to official sources, the highest allocation of Rs 1,599 crore has been made for the Khurda Road-Bolangir railway project while Rs 300 crore has been allocated for the new Talcher-Bimlagarh railway line and Rs 284 crore for the Janjatiya Gaurav corridor.
Similarly, the Centre has made a provision of Rs 115 crore for the Jeypore-Malkangiri (130 km) line and Rs 100 crore for the Jeypore-Nabarangpur (38 km) project.
An amount of Rs 50 crore has been allocated for the Naupada-Gunupur new broad gauge line up to Theruvali, while Rs 100 crore provision has been made for the Talcher-Angul line with Y-connection at Talcher.
In the Budget, the Centre has also made a provision of Rs 50 crore for the Haridaspur-Paradip railway project. Moreover, Rs 920 crore has been given for thr Vizianagram-Sambalpur third line; Rs 560 crore for fourth line of Jharsuguda-Bilaspur; Rs 550 crore for doubling of Koraput-Singapur road; and Rs 505 crore for Narayangarh-Bhadrak third line.