Centre allocates Rs 9,734 crore for railway development in Odisha

Bhubaneswar: Odisha has been allocated about Rs 9,734 crore which is the highest budgetary provision made so far and more than the state’s demands for railway infrastructure in the 2022-23 Union budget, a senior official said.

The official said this year’s budget allocation for Odisha is Rs 2,738.5 crore more than the last year’s allocation of Rs 6,995.58 crore, reported PTI.

The state government had demanded Rs 7,600 crore from the Central Budget for development of railway infrastructure in Odisha.

The allocation covers the entire East Coast Railway Zone and portions of South Eastern Railway and South East Central Railway zones within Odisha jurisdiction, he said.

Out of the total allocation for the state in the budget, Rs 8,415.96 crore has been proposed for ECoR while Rs 1,287 and Rs 31.04 crore allocated for infrastructure projects and safety related work in SER and SECR respectively.

For ECoR Rs 1,806.10 crore has been allocated for laying new rail tracks and Rs 3,643.86 crore for doubling the rail lines.

The highest allocation of Rs 891.55 crore has been made for 289-km Khurda Road-Balangir rail line followed by Rs 475 crore for Angul-Sukinda, Rs 300 crore for Bansapani-Daitari-Tamaka-Jakhapura, Rs 250 crore for Talcher-Bimlagarh, Rs 172.5 crore for Sambalpur-Talcher, Rs 164 crore for Khurda-Baranga third line.