Nilachakra

sub : Railway Budget 2008

Date : May 29, 2007 8:21 AM

Jai Jagannath,                                                                     Complete Budget Details

Yesterday honerable railway minister Sri. Lalu Prasad Yadav opened the Pandora's box and took out 10 Garib Raths and 53 new trains in his fifth Railway Budget, while announcing an extension of 16 trains. He introduced four new trains

New Trains :
1. Bhubaneshwar-Mumbai Express (Bi-weekly) via Sambalpur,
2. Puri-Darbhanga Express (Weekly)
3. Paradeep-Bhubaneshwar Express (Daily) in lieu of one pair passenger service between Paradeep and Cuttack.
4. Kendurjharagarh-Puri Express (Daily)

Extension of Trains :
1. 8611/8612 Varanasi-Ranchi to Sambalpur via Rourkela (Bi weekly)

Increase in frequency :
1. 2891/2892 Baripada-Bhubaneswar Express from tri-weekly to six days a week
2. 2421/2422 Bhubaneswar-New Delhi Rajdhani Express from bi-weekly to tri-weekly

Orissa has got an allocation of only Rs.972 crore only against the demand of Rs.1,300.30 crore. No new links have been sanctioned to backward regions of Kalahandi, Koraput and Bolangir.

Broadly visualizing the scenario, Orissa is ever treated like a step son of central government may be because of the insufficient governance at the state and ignorant MPs representing us at the centre, We lost 50 golden years. Orissa is now crowned as the third richest state of investment in India, the most favorite destination of industrialists, Excellent at progress report and thus a front runner among smart states. This couldn't happen for the rest 50 years, else Orissa could have been better than with Germany or Japan. Only during the tenures of a great technocrat and industrial architect Sir Biju Pattanaik and his son Sri Naveen Pattanaik as chief ministers, that the state has received & is receiving a royal treatment.

Hats off to the two most handsome chief ministers of Orissa, the father son duo.

Father gifted Orissa a steel plant at Rourkela ( benefiting 10 lakh people and livelihood), Paradeep Phosphate limited - PPL, ALCO, HAL, REC, Nandankanan and many more. Son is gifted Orissa with 2,37,00,000 crores of foreign investment, 26 steel plants, 7 air ports, 6 SEZs, 4 sea ports ( Dhamara, Gopalpur, Kirtania, New Paradeep ) and unlimited happiness.

For the rest of the 50 years the sharp edge injuries of political negligence, improper planning and lack of intelligent MPs at centre had certainly manhandled Orissa . Extreme negligence by South Eastern Railways paralyzed Orissa and revenue was looted from Orissa by other states. Ever seen the net like woven rail network in UP, Bihar and West Bengal. And in Orissa there is only two links ( Howrah - Bombay and Howrah - Madras ), that too non-electrocuted for decades.

Orissa Govt. was loosing 3600 crores per year of revenue to the hands of West Bengal Govt. due to mineral ore transportation via Haldia Port. Ores and minerals were looted from Orissa thru following five feeder rail links to Haldia port thru howrah - Bombay main line. These would have been the major vital revenue generating rail links for govt. of Orissa. Haldia port trust was doing major business with goods and ores from Orisa and our Govt. were sitting ducks. The five feeder links looting Orissa were

1. Rajakharasuan - Barbil rail link
2. Bandhamunda - Raxi rail link
3. Tata - Badam pahada rail link
4. Rajakharasuan - Bansapani rail link
5. Tata - Goru mahisani rail link

Imagine these 5 railway link lines were like 5 fingers of a hand that was put inside Orissa's pot and stealing sweets for years. These railway links were doing the same, looting our ores and minerals to a port in another state thus our state loosing export duties and customs worth of 3600 crores per year. Our Governments were sitting like ducks.

MP Sri. Anant Nayak was the first person to raise an alarm on this issue in Parliament. In 1973 Sir Biju Pattanaik planned to rail link Bansapani with Jakhapura to reach Paradeep Port. During 1993-94 Railway minister Kanhu Charan Lenka executed the project and it got completed with the catalytic efforts of Sri. Naveen Pattanaik with a green signal from Railway minister Sri. Lalu Prasad Yadav ( Of course with another holy intension of connecting Bihar with Puri dham in a shortest possible rail link) followed by extension of several trains to Puri. Thus our main objective was partially achieved. Other potential revenue generating rail links like Bimalagarh - Talcher, Keonjhar - Badam Pahar, Keonjhar - Barsuan is still to be constructed and prioritized.

In Howrah - Madras coast line Vijayanagaram - Kharagpur section that covers whole of Orissa was deliberately ignored till 1993. All trains have to run on diesel engines in this section inside Orissa and rest part of eastern railway was electrocuted. This was like an insult to Orissa. In 1993 then railway minister Sri. Kanhu charan Lenka under guidance and supervision of his majesty Sir. Biju Pattanaik planned and started Electric - traction work and completed the same in 2005.

---- > Paradeep Port was intentionally not connected to any of the mines or Industries in Orissa, to ensure Orissa govt. loose the custom export duties. Recently it got connected to Howrah - Madras main line ( after 30 years of the port been built )

---- > Internal rail links were neither connecting major cities of Orissa to each other nor to our only port Paradeep.

---- > Major city railway station were maintained like "C" grade stations due to lack of funding. Bhubaneswar being the capitol of Orissa, was having only 3 medium sized platforms, underdeveloped comparative to any rail junctions in AP or WB.

---- > Our MPs were neither sincere nor regular to Parliament. If few of them went to parliament they were sitting at far corners and sleeping for times. Back home they were kept ignorant of all these and were even in some cases told by party state head office not to raise such issues in Parliament. Even some MPs were unable to read and analyze the railway time table and map.

---- > Due to lack of proper rail line network inside Orissa, each day around 20 to 25 thousand heavy vehicles were running thru the state. Result was high risk to citizens and terrible condition of highways.

---- > Jagannath Dham, puri one of the most popular hub of world cultural heritage was not properly connected with other parts of India with rail and road lines. 20 pairs of trains run to puri on a daily basis, but surprisingly on a single line. Puri railway station lacks sufficient platforms, passenger amenities and even a central terminal facility. On the contrary Tirupati railway station is well connected to Chennai, Gudur, Hyderabad, Bangalore. As like Tirupati, Puttaparthy & Madurai, Puri neither has a helipad nor airport. Thanks to Naveen Pattanaik government at least that due to his repeated efforts POSCO is going to construct Puri - Konark - Paradeep rail line for 100 kilometer.

Any way the days are brighter days ahead as governance is good now. We are entering into a evolutionary revolution of prosperity. Wish Lord Jagannath protect us from all beurocracy. Find attached the complete rail Budget 2008.

Regards
Nilachakra