Bhubaneswar: Ministry of railways has allocated Rs 5,252 crore in its budget for Odisha against state's demand for Rs 6,500 crore.

The BJD has alleged that a number of demands raised by chief minister Naveen Patnaik in his letter to railway minister Piyush Goyal have been ignored. Last year, Odisha had got Rs 5,102 crore in the railway budget against its demand of Rs 5,870 crore.

While the BJD has come down heavily on Centre for neglecting the cause of Odisha, the BJP has interpreted it as a good railway budget.

However, East Coast Railway general manager Umesh Singh said: "There will be no dearth of money for the development of railway in Odisha. The total budget outlay for new and ongoing projects is Rs 6,563 crore. Out of it, Rs 563 crore will be used for electrification in the East Coast Railway jurisdiction. All railway lines in the zone will be electrified."

The ministry has allocated Rs 200 crore for Angul-Sukinda, Rs 150 crore for Jeypore-Nabarangpur, Rs 95 crore for Jeypore-Malkangiri and Rs 625 crore for Khurda- Balangir railway projects. For foot overbridges it has allocated Rs 300 crore and another Rs 190 crore for railway overbridges.

Goyal has made a budgetary provision of Rs 220 crore for Sambalpur-Talcher double tracks and Rs 80 crore for construction of Daitari-Bansapani-Tomka-Jakhpura railway line. Money has also been allocated for the improvement of all stations in the East Coast Railway zone.

For the new 200km railway line between Talcher and Gopalpur in Ganjam, the budget has earmarked only Rs 5 lakh, while Rs 45 lakh has been allocated for laying double lines between Delanaga and Puri. The Jharsuguda-Rengali project has got Rs 3.05 crore.

Terming this budget as most unfortunate, BJD spokesperson Pratap Deb said: "Railways is earning Rs 16,000 crore from the state. But compared to the revenue it earns from the state, the budgetary allocation is too meagre."

He said: "Even the money that was allocated last year has been included in the present budget. But Odisha's demand to set up a wagon factory at Sitapalli has been ignored. Attempts are being made to cheat people of the state."

BJP spokesperson Pruthwiraj Harichandan said: "If we take the territory of Odisha under South East and South-Central Railway into consideration, the state will get another Rs 912 crore, besides the Rs 5,252 crore already allocated in the budget."