Version User Scope of changes
Nov 23 2009, 8:17 AM EST (current) cooldillip707 4 words added, 113 words deleted
Jul 7 2009, 8:04 PM EDT cooldillip707 48 words deleted

Changes

Key:  Additions   Deletions
No doubt that Rourkela lies on the Howrah - Mumbai main Railway route, which in fact "is" a busy line, not for passengers but for goods. A lot of freight activity is noticed in and around Rourkela, but no such activity is noticed for passenger or express trains. Passenger services remain neglected, in one of the most industrialized regions of the country. During the last decade many trains which were terminating at Rourkela were either removed or extended to other cities. The examples are as follows:

Train Number

Name of the Train

Current Status

305/306

Rourkela-Jharsuguda Passenger

Cancelled
N.A. Howrah-Rourkela Passenger Cancelled
N.A. Rourkela-Bhubaneswar Passenger Cancelled
8447/8448 Rourkela-Bhubaneswar Hirakhand Express Koraput-Bhubaneswar Hirakhand Express
2021/2022 Howrah-Rourkela Shatabdi Express Howrah-Barbil Janshatabdi Express
8451/8452 Rourkela-Puri Tapaswini Express Hatia-Puri Tapaswini Express
N.A. Rourkela-Jharsuguda-Nizamuddin Hirakud Link Express Cancelled
2871/2872 Howrah-Rourkela Ispat Express Howrah-Sambalpur Ispat Express









People from all over India, work in Rourkela Steel Plant and the industries in and around Rourkela. Due to poor connectivity with other regions of the country, these people face a lot of problems, while visiting their native places.
Further Rourkela has got the National Institute of Technology (N.I.T), which attracts a lot of students from India and even abroad. The students who belong to South India face the same problem, like frequent changing of trains,to visit their native places. Further many students who study in South Indian cities like Hyderabad face the problem of changing trains at Bhubaneswar.

Of the total 23112495 kms. of railway route present in the state, Sundargarh district has got the maximum i.e. 337 kms. With industries like Rourkela Steel Plant, Rourkela; OCL,Rajgangpur and mines like Hemgiri-Rampur(Coal), Barsuan,Kiribaru(Iron-ore), Biramitrapur(Limestone), Sundargarh generates a heavy revenue for Chakradharpur Division and South Eastern Railways, thus making the division and the zone the highest revenue generator in the country. But this heavy revenue generated is not spent for the district, but for other regions in the country which are already developed in railway communication. It is highly regretted by the Rourkelites.

Every year in the monsoon the tracks are washed by heavy rains,which leads to traffic disruption in the zone. This year in June it happened withKharagpur-Balasore track, which was washed due to heavy rains. Hence many trains were cancelled and others were diverted on Tatanagar-Rourkela-Sambalpur-Bhubaneswar route. Trains like Purusottam,Rajdhani,Falaknumma plied on this route while important trains passing through Rourkela like Tapaswini, Garib Rath, Puri Passenger,Kalinga Utkal remained cancelled. This created a lot of dissatisfaction among the rourkelites and after protests Tapaswini Express was allowed to run fully and Rourkela – Puri passenger was allowed to Jharsuguda. Garib Rath remained cancelled while Utkal was diverted on Samalpur – Jharsuguda route.Many intellectuals pointedpoint out that if Talcher- Bimalagarh railway route had been operational then Indian Railways could have saved thousands of crores of rupees which washas been lost in cancelling and diverting trains. Not a single train from Rourkela would have been cancelled plus time and money of passengers as well as Railways would have been saved,with trains following the Talcher-Bimalagarh-Rourkela-Tatanagar route. This route when completed will prove a boon to the people of Rourkela as it is expected to reduce the journey time between Rourkela and Bhubaneswar by 4 hours.

It has been a long demand (more than 40 years), to construct a Rail Coach Factory at Bondamunda ,but this has fallen deaf ears to the Government. Bondamunda, being the second largest Railway Marshalling Yard in Asia ,has a plenty of land available and no personal land will be lost in the transaction.

Further it will provide employment to a large number of people. In addition to this a washing line, terminal facilities are also demanded at Rourkela Junction. A washing line will help in the regular cleaning of long as well as short distance trains. Presently one such line is present at Garden Reach Workshop at Kolkata, hence it is inconvenient for non Howrah trains to be regularly cleaned.

With the introduction of Terminal facilities, Rourkela will be able to terminate a lot of express trains, more than that it used to have. Presently no express trains terminate at Rourkela, which is to be regretted and with the construction of a terminal, Railway coaches (trains) can be sheltered in coach sheds/depots. Removal of illegal occupation from the land belonging to Railways will help in the construction of washing line/facility, maintainance shed, coach terminal, parking space etc. Further another road can be constructed which will connect the station from the North. This type of dual road connectivity to railway stations exists in various cities in India but still is not available to a metropolitan like Rourkela.