Professor wrote to Naveen Patnaik with Issues of Ganjam

Bureau Odishabarta

Dear Honorable Chief Minister Sri Patnaik,I would like to thank you for addressing the pandemic situation in Odisha and looking after the requirements of people who need it the most.

In the current situation, economic activities have been reduced, so both the state and central Govt. are increasing public funding and investment to generate employment and boost the economy. The Central Govt. is investing heavily in building highways, roads, railways, and airports. However, I have been observing for the past 5 years that most of the central Govt. railway and airport projects are not moving expectedly in Odisha due to little progress in land acquisition.

In 2016-17 railway proposed Electric Loco Periodical Overhauling Workshop in Kalahandi. For the past 5 years, the progress of this project is not moving at all. In comparison Railway had proposed Wagon repair workshop in Vadlapud, Visakhapatnam (which in fact initially was proposed in Kalahandi but was shifted to Vadlapud due to feasibility) in 2015-16 with estimated cost of 289 crores. The project has already been completed after spending 302 crores rupees in these 5 years. On the other hand, even though Wagon Periodic Overhauling Workshop in Kalahandi was proposed one year after Vadlapud project, work has not even begun. In 2018-19, railway allocated 26 lakh rupees for the project in Kalahandi, this amount could not be spent in that year. In the 2019-20 budget the railway allocated Rs 1 crore for the same. No progress was made. The same amount was again reallocated in 2020-21. That year also nothing moved as expected. Again Rs 1 crore has been re-reallocated by railway in the budget 2021-22. This poor allotment and slow progress are not due to the railway or the central Government’s negligence. The actual reason is the Odisha state Government was not able to transfer required land on time to the railway for the past 5 years due to a lengthy process. There is even no serious attempt to speed up the process.

Similarly, Utkela Airport in Kalahandi was included by the central Government under UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik) scheme 5 years ago. The Central Government had sanctioned 55 crores of rupees for the expansion of this airport in 2019, the fund is available to the local authority. 188 acres of land was supposed to be acquired for the expansion of the runway of Utkela airport; no progress has been made in the past 2 years.

For the past 15 years, people and politicians across Odisha were seriously demanding to expedite the Khordha Road-Balangir rail line in the interest of Odisha’s development. Many demonstrations were made as well as petitions and letters were written to the central Government and ministry of the railway to expedite this railway project. With increasing public pressure in the last 10 years, the central Government paid due attention and specifically in the last 5-year railway budget allocated to this route was substantially increased. However, in the past 5 years, one common issue that is being noticed in each passing year is that a good amount of allocated budget is remaining unspent. The reason for this has been slow progress in land acquisition. The same applies to the Talcher-Bimalagarh railway line, Jeypore-Nabaragnpur as well as Jeypore-Malkangiri rail line for the past 4 years.

In this process, overall, it is Odisha and its infrastructural and developmental interest in backward regions like KBK is taking a back seat. People of Odisha are losing in the long run.

I sincerely request you to kindly designate a special officer to speed up the land acquisition process for all central Govt funded projects like railways and airports in KBK region as early as possible.

Thank you and best regards

Digambara Patra MPhil, PhD
Professor & Chairperson,Department of Chemistry
American University of Beirut
Beirut, Lebanon

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