Mayurbhanj gets a raw deal in Railway Budget

By Amarkavi Satpathy

 Bhubaneswar, Feb.7:     It’s an irony of fate that the tribal dominated Mayurbhanj district of North Odisha has got a raw deal in the recently presented Railway Budget in the Parliament even as it has elected some 22  MLAs of the BJP to the Odisha Legislative Assembly as a well 8  MP of BJP to the Lok Sabha in the last 2019 general elections.                                                                                                                  It is noteworthy that the Rupsa-Bangriposi Railway line (52km) was constructed as early as in 1905 in narrow gauge by the erstwhile ruler of the ex- Orissa Princely Ruled State of Mayurbhanj namely Maharaja Shriram Chandra Bhanjdeo  which  was considered as a progressive step of the Maharaja so far as  the expansion of railway connectivity in Orissa is concerned. Even though the railway line was converted to broad gauge in 2006 during the UPA regime at the centre the need for its extension upto Gorumahisani Railway Station of the Tatanagar-Badampahar Railway line (broad gauge) only by construction of  one 42 km railway track namely Bangriposi-Gorumahisani is highly imperative as it would lessen the distance between New Delhi and Bhubaneswar upto about 300 kms in addition to providing the linkage of the twin main ancient railway lines Howrah-Chennai and Howrah-Mumbai of our country through the tribal dominated Mayurbhanj district of North Odisha.                                                                                                                      The early construction of the aforesaid 42 km long railway project along with that of another 80 km long project of KeonjharGarh-Badampahar are very much essential for the fast economic development of the twin tribal districts Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar of underdeveloped northern Odisha as the latter railway  line connecting Jakhpura-Banspani with the Tatanagar-Badampahar would provide one more railway connectivity between the twin old railway lines of our country namely Howrah-Chennai and Howrah-Mumbai through Odisha’s  two tribal dominated underdeveloped districts of Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar in addition to speeding up the economic growth of the areas rich in mineral and forest resources.                                                                                                              Moreover, the construction of Nilgiri-Baripada, Banspani-Barbil (lessening the distance between the two minerally rich areas to some 25 kms)  Bolani-Kiriburu only 5 kms ( providing an alternative rail connectivity between Bhubaneswar and Rourkela- the steel city of Odisha in addition to that of Talcher-Bimlagarh -now under construction) and Banspani-Bolani are also very much required to ensure the rapid economic development these tribal dominated areas of northern Odisha.      The remarkable silence of this year’s Railway Budget about these proposed railway projects has stunned the peace loving as well as innocent people of the utterly neglected area  in so far as the development of railway connectivity and infrastructure is concerned. The early and immediate steps of the present Railway Minister Mr Aswini Vaishnav – the first representative in Parliament from Odisha  facing utter neglect by the Railways for long years- to adorn the position of that lucrative ministry- with regard to  allocation of sufficient funds for the early and timely completion of these above mentioned railway lines wili assuage the feelings of the people of Odisha utterly neglected by the Railway Ministry for a very long period since the independence of our country the conscious people of Odisha in general and the people underdeveloped as well as under privileged Mayurbhanj in do sincerely feel.