Execution of several projects is likely to be delayed
Union Railway Ministry has reduced this year’s budgetary provisions sanctioned for railway development in Odisha further in its revision in the month of September.

Sources said the impact of revision would be in tune of Rs. 35 crore. As a result of which, execution of several projects is likely to be delayed.
Two months prior to the present revision, Rs. 211 crore was slashed from the 2012-13 grant.
After present reduction in grant size, development relating to passenger amenities is likely to suffer since Rs. 1 crore has been deducted from the budget on this head.
Similarly, there would be overall deduction of Rs. 6 crore from budgetary provision for different projects. Union Railway Ministry had earmarked Rs. 83 crore for development of railway lines. After the revision, the grant left with East Coast Railway is Rs. 77 crore.
Khurda Road-Bolangir project, which is a decades-long project, has been hit again due to cut in this year’s project. In 2012-13 financial year, Rs. 40 crore was sanctioned for the much awaited project. Now the project is left with a grant of Rs. 38 crore.
For past three years, Odisha has been getting a raw deal with regards to the Khurda Road-Bolangir Project.
In 2010-11, the original budgetary provision of Rs. 120 crore was slashed by half to Rs. 60 during mid-fiscal revision. In the subsequent year (2011-12), Rs. 60 crore grant was reduced to Rs. 45.45 crore.
Even though the ECoR functions with lowest operating ratio of 45.6 and gives a whopping earning of Rs. 8,850 crore, Union Railway Ministry has been ignoring State’s just demands, said a top official.
He said there was absolutely no progress in projects such as Sambalpur-Titlagarh, Titlagarh-Raipur and Angul-Sukinda, budgets for these projects were increased every year.
“If these false budget grants are reduced, the actual budget for Odisha would be very negligible.”
  • The revision will be in tune of Rs. 35 crores
  • Odisha has been getting a raw deal with regard to the Khurda Road-Bolangir Project