Thursday, November 20, 2008

Memo to Central team demands railway linkage to Kandhamal

The Pioneer, Nov 20, 2008
PNS | Bhubaneswar

The Agami Odisha, the Swabhiman Manch and the Lok Sammukhya on Wednesday jointly submitted a memorandum to the Central Ministerial team, led by Sharad Pawer, demanding railway linkage to the tribal Kandhamal district.

On behalf of the organisations, coordinator Lalit Mohan Pattnaik and joint coordinator Bikram Swain said that due to lack of connectivity, the locals cannot intermingle with outside people and hence social transformation of the tribal communities in the district cannot take place. Further, their products could not be transported outside and hence they got less value for their products, which were looted by the outside traders at much less market price, they added.

A rail line connecting Lanjigarh to Phulbani to Angul would bisect Kandhamal and upcoming Khurda-Balangir rail line and it would serve as a bypass link between Bhubaneswar to Koraput zone, they said adding that the rate of return from this railway stretch would be much more than 14 %, which is required by the Railway Board to sanction a new rail line.