The land acquisition process for the Angul-Duburi-Sukinda Road rail link will start soon with issue of notification under Section 4 (1) of the Land Acquisition Act.
The project needs 1717.25 acres of land in all which includes 1244.82 acres of private land in 69 villages, 258.28 acres government land in 60 villages and 214.15 acres of forest land in 31 villages.
The Centre has allocated Rs 22.50 crore for the Angul-Duburi-Sukinda Road track in the current financial year. In 2009-10, only Rs 18.58 crore could be utilized as against the allocation of Rs 75 crore.
For the 82-km Haridapur-Paradeep rail link, 1146.30 acres out of the total land requirement of 1380 acres has been acquired. Earth work and construction work on two major bridges for this project is underway.
However, the land losers are creating obstacles in the work, demanding higher compensation for the land acquired, said minister for commerce & transport Sanjeev Sahoo.
The state government had made a proposal to the Railways ministry to consider ex-gratia payment to land losers at the rate of Rs 5 lakh per acre for rural land, Rs 6 lakh per care for urban land and Rs 7 lakh per acre for homestead land minus the amount of market value fixed by the land acquisition officer. However, the proposal was not agreed to by the ministry and the state government is thinking of alternative options to resolve the issue through dialogue with the land losers.
The Paradeep-Haridaspur railway track was sanctioned in 1996-97 at an estimated cost of Rs 594 crore.
The Ministry of Railways has sanctioned Rs 101 crore for this project in the current financial year as against the demand of Rs 200 crore.
This project is being implemented by a special purpose vehicle called Haridaspur Paradeep Rail Company Ltd and financial closure has already been achieved for the project.
For the Khurda Road-Bolangir rail link, land acquisition has been completed for the first 0-36 km stretch. The first phase of the Khurda Road-Bolangir rail link project (0-36 km) is set to be commissioned by March 2011.
The Railways ministry has allotted only Rs 120 crore for this project in 2010-11 against a request of Rs 300 crore.
