Bridges over the Kathajodi river to facilitate the railway’s double-track job. Picture by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, Dec. 25: Orissa High Court has issued a notice to East Coast Railway general manager in the wake of a PIL seeking the court’s intervention to speed up doubling of tracks between Cuttack and Barang.

Completion of this project is essential for movement of passenger trains via Cuttack.

Two residents of the city — Jayant Kumar Bal, 58, of Markatnagar and Bishnu Mohan Das Samant, 62, of Kesharpur — alleged in the petition that the delay was causing a “lot of trouble” for the people of Cuttack and nearby areas.

Since the railway link between Cuttack and Barang is restricted to a single line, there is congestion of railway traffic between Bhubaneswar and Cuttack. As a result, several passenger trains are being diverted from Barang towards Naraj.

At present, nearly 20 passenger trains are not coming to Cuttack railway station. Consequently, commuters from Cuttack and nearby areas are compelled to go to Bhubaneswar to board these trains.

The petition stated that several trains from west Odisha were not coming to Cuttack. Consequently, passengers coming to high court and SCB Medical College and Hospital were facing problems.

Acting on the PIL, the two-judge bench of Chief Justice A.K. Goel and Justice A.K. Rath issued a notice to the general manager of East Coast Railway. The PIL has sought the court’s direction to complete the project within a stipulated period.

While issuing the notice last week, the court expected him to file his reply within four weeks.

The petitioners said that though the track construction had started in 2006, the project had not been completed even after seven years.

Among the trains that are not coming to Cuttack due to this reason are Puri-Surat Express, Puri-Ahmedabad Express, Visakha-Amritsar-Hirakud Express, Bhubaneswar-Balangir Express, Bhubaneswar-Rourkela Intercity, Bhubaneswar-Keonjhargarh Fast Passenger and Puri-Sambalpur Express.

The petitioners also sought the court’s direction for extending the trains (Bhubaneswar-Mumbai-Konark Express, Bhubaneswar-Bengaluru-Prashanti Express and Bhubaneswar-Jagdalpur-Bhawanipatna-Hirakhand Link Express) to Cuttack for departure towards south.

In September 2011, the Odisha Consumers Association had filed a PIL on the delay in doubling of railway line between Cuttack and Barang. The PIL is pending in the high court.