Bhubaneswar : The much delayed Khurda-Balangir Railway may get a major fillip, as the Odisha government has decided to provide land free of cost to the Railways. The 881.74 acres of land are located in districts like Nayagarh, Boudh, Sonepur and Balangir.
The state cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today approved a proposal regarding this. As per the decision, the land will be alienated free of premium, free of incidental charges and free of capitalized value of land revenue in favour of Ministry of Railways for the construction of Daspalla-Bolangir segment of Khurda-Bolangir New Broad Gauge Railway line.
The Cabinet also decided to bring execution of rural piped water supply projects under one package to provide safe drinking water in the water scarce areas of Koraput district out of BASUDHA program. BASUDHA will benefit 2.79 Lakh people of 268 villages of 51 GPs under three Blocks of Koraput for getting safe drinking water.
The Cabinet has approved the L1 tender of JMC Projects & Ramky Infrastructure (JV) Mumbai amounting to Rs.316.53 crore for execution of above work which is targeted for completion within a period of 24 months.
It also approved sanction of lease of Government land measuring 181.77 acre -78.120 acre in Mouza Badasinghari & 103.65 acre in Mouza Basantpur- under Sambalpur Tahasil out of the given advance possession of 200 acre in favour of Director IIM Sambalpur for permanent campus of IIM Sambalpur under Sambalpur Tahasil free of Premium and Incidental charges.
However, the IIM will have to make a payment of Rs 100 per acre per annum towards annual ground rent and Cess at the rate of 75 per cent of the ground rent.
The Cabinet cleared another proposal for utilization of land measuring 1735 acre out of a total 2970 acre handed over to IDCO for development of Private Industrial Park at Gopalpur in Ganjam District as Domestic Tariff Area by TATA Steel Special Economic Zone Ltd.
Out of the 2970 acre land handed over to IDCO for establishment of steel plant at Gopalpur in Ganjam district by TATA Steel, 1235 acre notified by the Union Government as SEZ may be utilized by TSSEZL as such and the balance 1735 acre may be utilized by the said Company for setting up a private Industrial Park as Domestic Tariff Area.