Bhubaneswar, Oct. 26: Eight years on, the East Coast Railway’s request to the state government to provide a dedicated 33KV line to its headquarters at Chandrasekherpur is yet to be granted.

Chief electrical services engineer of East Coast Railway Alok N. Mathur had informed the government that the quality of power supply to Rail Kunj, the railway operator’s headquarters, had been deteriorating with frequent power failures in the 33KV incoming power supply.

“The present 33KV feeder to Rail Kunj is a branch of a common line to other users. A problem in other lines affects the railway feeder,” said Mathur. Interruption of power seriously hampers official work at the headquarters.

The railways had deposited Rs 3.76 crore with Central Electricity Supply Utility (Cesu), the government-backed company responsible for the supply of power in the coastal belt, in two instalments in 2004 and 2006 for the construction of a 33KV double line dedicated feeder from the Mancheswar Grid sub-station to railway headquarters building.

In a letter to the state government on October 3, chief electrical engineer construction P. Behera said that despite several letters to the government, the work was yet to be completed.

He added that work at the headquarters was being affected because of the unstable power supply.

Two days ago, the state government had finally intervened and asked the Cesu authorities to complete the 33KV dedicated line at the earliest. “We have asked for detailed a report on the status of the construction of the 33KV line and reasons for not supplying of 33KV power to the main receiving station of East Coast Railway,” said a senior government officer.

“Various reasons, including forest clearance have delayed the installation of the line. However, work is going on at a fast pace and the line will be commissioned within a fortnight. Instead of approaching the state government, it would have been better if the railway authorities had directly approached us,” Cesu chief B.C. Jena said.

Jena also said that the railway authorities should take steps to clear their pending power dues.

East Coast Railway officials said most of the railway projects in the state had been delayed because of the government’s failure to hand over the required land to the railways. However, the state government said the railway authorities were deliberately sidelining the demands of Odisha. On October 12, chief minister Naveen Patnaik had written to railway minister C.P. Joshi protesting against the Centre’s move to slash funds allocated to the state in the railway budget.

“This is against our projected total demand of Rs 2,345 crore for different projects in Odisha for 2012-13. When the state contributes revenue of more than Rs 7,500 crore annually to the Indian Railways, it is a matter of regret that Rs 220 core has been reduced out of the paltry budgetary allocation of Rs 723 crore,” Naveen had said.

The chief minister thought the reduced budgetary allocation would greatly hamper the process of better connectivity in the state.