Odisha Assly House Committee to meet Railway Minister on Jan 6

Odisha Sun Times Bureau

Bhubaneswar, Jan 4:

The Odisha Assembly’s House Committee on Railways will meet Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on January 6 to place the state’s demands for allocation in the upcoming Railways Budget.

Pic Courtesy: internetretailing.net
Pic Courtesy: internetretailing.net

The Committee headed by Speaker Niranjan Pujari will meet Prabhu on Wednesday at 3 PM and place a demand for Rs 5000 crore allocation for the state in the Union Railways Budget for 2016-17.

BJD MPs December 8 last year had met Prabhu in New Delhi and had placed the state’s demand for enhanced allocations of funds for the State in the ensuing Railway Budget.

The MPs led by Bhartruhari Mahtab and Prasanna Patsani had met Prabhu and submitted a memorandum demanding an allocation of Rs 5,576.50 crore in the Budget.

The MPs had claimed that the Minister had given a patient hearing to the state’s demands and had assured for more allocation.

Earlier in the same month, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allocate a sizable amount in railway sector for 2016-17 for strengthening and expanding rail infrastructure.

Patnaik had said the railway route length and rail density in the state was very much below national average as also substantially lower than that in neighbouring states while gross earnings from various stations in the state was estimated to be in excess of Rs.14,000 crore during 2014-2015.

Maintaining that a large part of the state has remained untouched by rail, Patnaik had pointed out that lack of infrastructure has been one of the major reasons which have impeded the socio-economic growth of this region.

 

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