Kendrapara: Congress activists stopped a goods train at Kendrapara station in Odisha for four hours Wednesday as part of a ‘rail roko’ agitation demanding passenger train service on the Haridaspur-Paradip route.
The activists, led by Congress leader Ganeswar Behera, halted the goods train travelling from Paradip to Kalinganagar at the Kendrapara station at 10 am for four hours, a party leader said.
Construction work of the 82-km-long railway line from Haridaspur to the port town of Paradip, covering Jajpur, Kendrapara, and Jagatsinghpur districts, was completed in 2020, and the first goods train had rolled out in the same year.
“Congress workers stopped the train by squatting on the railway line. They were demanding the launch of passenger trains on the route,” the station manager of Kendrapara, Durga Charan Pradhan, said.
Railway officials and the district administration held discussions with the demonstrators to sort out the matter and the agitation was withdrawn after the authorities gave an assurance that they will look into their demand, the Sub- Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) of Kendrapara, Rajiv Lochan Panda, said.
The ECoR would start passenger train service on the route after completion of the requirements for providing amenities to travellers, and getting a certificate from the commissioner of railway safety, an East Coast Railway (ECoR) official said.
Last year, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had urged the Railway Minister to run passenger trains on the line.
PTI