Malkangiri: Land acquisition for the 130-kilometre-long Jeypore-Malkangiri railway track has finally started. The acquisition is being carried out in Jeypore, Baipariguda, Khairaput, Mathili and Malkangiri tehsils. Residents of all these localities are excited as they are hopeful of utilising railway services that will provide them with accessibility to various parts of Odisha.
Under the supervision of Khairaput tehsildar Ram Krishna Nayak, supervisor Kameswar Pandit, RI Minati Behera, amins Sushant Maharana, Lachim Kirsani and Ishwar Chalan the process to acquire 22 kilometres of land from Lunakhari to Khemaguda villages for the track has been initiated. The villages coming under this 22 kilometres stretch are Bahadurguda, Nuaguda, Kusumput, Chapalapada, Paruguda and Lunakhari. Tehsildar Nayak when contacted said the process is going on smoothly and will be completed soon.
When the plan to lay down the tracks was announced a few years back, the people of Malkangiri district were overjoyed at the prospect of getting quick accessibility to far-flung areas. However, the project was put on the back-burner for a substantial period. Now with land acquisition starting for the project they are hoping that the days of dreary and tiresome travel is finally over.
PNN