Keonjhar: Keonjhar district has been given a short-shrift in the development of railway network despite contributing the highest revenue in the state to the Indian Railways. The district is contributing Rs 10,000 crore in mineral transportation per annum, the highest revenue to the East Coast Railway (ECoR) as well as the South Eastern Railway but the development of railway network has been neglected here due to the step-motherly attitude of the Railways Ministry. The district had witnessed first train service 60 years after independence during the tenure of UPA government and when Ananta Nayak was the MP of Keonjhar. The first train was plied between Puri and Keonjhargarh. Demand for connecting Anandapur, Champua, and the Maa Tarini shrine at Ghatagaon with rail route is being made for last several years but the pleas are yet to be addressed.
Connecting Anandapur with rail route is essential as it will connect Harichandanpur- AnandapurBhadrak and linking with Dhamra port in Bhadrak district. The rail connectivity will usher in economic and financial development in the area. Residents have been demanding for double laning of the JakhapuraBanshapani-Jamshedpur rail route as well as its electrification. The Railway Ministry is also silent on connecting Keonjhar-Badampahad with rail network which can also be an alternative rail route to New Delhi. Demand for connecting seven km stretch of Barbil with Banshapani and 30 km stretch of Banshapani with Bimalagarh which can connect with Rourkela is also being ignored.
Similarly, connecting Hijli station in Kharagpur with Angul will open the rail connectivity in Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj and Dhenkanal districts. Plying of more trains to PuriKeonjhargarh and Chakradharpur, daily train services between Keonjhar, Tatanagar, Nuamundi and Chainbasa, plying of more trains to Vishakhapatnam, plying of train between Bhubaneswar and New Delhi via Keonjhar, plying of proposed Jammu Tawi Express train service between Paradip and New Delhi via Keonjhar, Barbil and Tatanagar are among the several demands which are yet to be addressed. Other demands are the extension of Jan Shatabadi train service plying between Kolkata and Barbil upto Keonjhar, launching of night train service to Bhubaneswar and the upgradation of all stations in the district residents. These demands are yet to be fulfilled.