By IANS,
Bhubaneswar : Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Wednesday termed the interim railway budget 2014-15 as a big disappointment.
“The vote-on-account railway budget for the year 2014-15 is a big disappointment. We had requested the railway ministry to allocate Rs.4,000 crore for various projects in the state but no specific provision about any project of Odisha has been indicated,” Patnaik told reporters here.
He said the state had demanded 31 new trains against which only one new express train and two passenger trains have been announced.
“In view of the funds crunch of railways, the Odisha government has come forward to finance 50 percent of the project cost and provide the required land free of cost for balance work of the Khurda-Bolangir line,” he said.
“Similarly, in the two ongoing special purpose vehicle projects – the Haridaspur-Paradeep line and the Angul-Sukinda line – the government has committed to provide 26 percent share capital,” he said.
“But in the current vote-on-account nothing has been specified about any of these projects,” Patnaik added.
The chief minister said the interim budget did not mention about the wagon factory in Ganjam district that was announced three years back and also about the Kalahandi project for which the state government has made a request.
“The central government has once again given step motherly treatment to the state, especially when the state is giving more than 14,000 crore revenue per annum to the railways,” Patnaik said.
“People of Odisha will remember this continuous neglect in the railway sector and I am sure they will give a befitting response at the earliest opportunity,” he added.