10,928cr for Odisha’s rly sector, highest-ever outlay: Minister

Bhubaneswar: The Centre allocated Rs 10,928 crore in this year’s Union Budget for the development of the railway sector in Odisha. Railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, while announcing this at a press conference in New Delhi on Monday, said it was the highest-ever budgetary allocation in a year for the state.This year’s allocation is Rs 329 crore more compared to last year’s allocation of Rs 10,599 crore. “Now work for total railway projects worth Rs 90,659 crore is underway in Odisha. When the double engine govt was formed in Odisha in 2024, the Centre promised to undertake railway projects worth Rs 1 lakh crore in 5 years. We will keep our promise and execute projects worth Rs 10,000 crore in the coming days,” he added.He said Odisha will benefit from the East-West freight corridor starting from Dankuni in West Bengal to Surat in Gujarat via Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. “Because of this, industrial activity in Odisha will be increased,” he added.He said around 2,200 km of new railway track was built in the last 11 years. This is more than the entire rail network of Malaysia. To reduce elephant deaths on railway tracks, the railway minister said they are laying optic fibres in areas with elephant movement.“To solve this problem, a new technology is being implemented to detect elephant movement and save these pachyderms. AI-based thermal cameras will be launched in the next 6 months. It will help in detecting these wild animals. We also identified 200 places across the country where elephant underpasses will be built. After constructing these underpasses, elephants will not come to the track,” he added.On high-speed railway projects, Vaishnaw said the first bullet train project from Mumbai to Ahmedabad is underway. “7 high-speed rail corridors have been announced in the Union Budget. In the next phase, we will include other corridors, including Odisha, for high-speed rail projects,” he added.According to the ministry of railways, the average outlay for Odisha’s railway sector was Rs 838 crore per year between 2009 and 2014. “This year’s allocation is 13 times more than the average outlay of the UPA regime,” said the railway minister.CM Mohan Charan Majhi thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Union finance minister, and the railway minister for allocating a record Rs 10,928 crore in the current budget for the transformation of Odisha’s railway infrastructure.“I firmly believe that the ‘East-West Freight Corridor’ approved in the current budget will herald a new era in Odisha’s industrial and commercial sectors. The use of AI-based thermal cameras and OFC (optical fibre cable) technology to prevent elephant deaths on railway tracks will set an example in wildlife protection,” said Majhi.Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan also thanked the Centre for the allocation. “It is a historic allocation to Odisha for railway development,” he added.