Malkangiri: Rail services will be available to Malkangiri residents within five years as railway authorities prepare to complete land acquisition for construction of a rail route within the next six months, a report said.
This was stated here by Anup Kumar Satpathy, divisional railways manager (DRM) of Vishakhapatnam railways division during his visit to Malkangiri here, Saturday. Satpthay was here to review the under-construction rail route project in Malkangiri.
Attending a review meeting at the Circuit House here, Satpathy said over 20 per cent work of 130-km long Jeypore-Malkangiri rail route has been completed. He stressed on speeding up land acquisition for the remaining part of the rail route within the next six months. ADM Birasen Pradhan, revenue officials and senior officials of the railways department participated in the review meeting.
The rail route works will be expedited on a priority basis with funds sanctioned in the budget after completion of land acquisition process. Subsequently, the residents in Malkangiri will get rail services within five years, he said.
Meanwhile, a delegation of Malkangiri Zilla Surakshya Manch (Citizen’s Forum) submitted a memorandum to the DRM stating that despite having a number of proposed mines, Malkangiri has failed to develop as a district due to lack of a rail route for transportation of goods. In the memorandum they stressed on establishment of a rail route under the ‘Akanksha’ scheme of the Centre and demanded to expedite the works.
Duryodhan Patra, Ram Patnaik, Dillip Parichha, Durga Tripathy, Lambodar Turuk, Nrusingha Charan Mohanty, Paresh Chandra Mohanty, Debabrata Sana as well as other members were part of the delegation.
When contacted, the ADM said that land acquisition will be completed in six months for the rail route project.