Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav (file photo)
Digital Desk, Bhubaneswar. Bhubaneswar Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav on Monday said the Center has allocated Rs 10,928 crore for the development of Odisha's rail sector in the Union Budget for financial year 2026-27.
Addressing a press conference held virtually, Vaishnav said that railway projects worth Rs 90,659 crore are in progress in the state. He said that we had promised investment of more than Rs 1 lakh crore in Odisha. Now, with the recent budget allocation, the total investment in the rail sector will soon cross the Rs 1 lakh crore mark.
He said the current allocation is 13 times more than the average amount of Rs 838 crore that Odisha received each financial year during the UPA government between 2009 and 2014. The state was allocated Rs 10,599 crore in financial year 2025-26. The Railway Minister said that Odisha will also benefit from the East-West Freight Corridor project. This 2,052 km long corridor will connect Dunkuni in West Bengal to Surat in Gujarat.
It will pass through Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat. He said that this corridor will boost industrial development and economic activities in Odisha. Vaishnav said that currently six pairs of trains each of Vande Bharat Express and Amrit Bharat Express are running in Odisha and soon bullet train service will also start in the state.
He said that in the last 11 years, about 2,200 kilometers of new railway tracks have been constructed in Odisha, which is more than the total railway network of Malaysia. To protect wild elephants from train accidents, the Union Minister said his ministry will install AI-based thermal cameras along railway tracks to detect and prevent collisions with elephants. This project will be started within 6 months. Further, he said that 200 locations have been identified across the country for construction of underpasses for easy movement of elephants.
East Coast Railway (ECR) General Manager Parameshwara Funkwal said that a total of 59 stations have been identified in Odisha for complete redevelopment under the AMRUT Station Scheme at a cost of Rs 2439 crore, out of which work has been completed on six stations - Cuttack, Baripada, Barpali, Bimalagarh, Paralakhemundi and Talcher.
About 88 percent of the total budget allocated for ECOR for the year 2025-26 has been utilized so far. Giving information to the media persons, he said that the total expenditure in the state of Odisha has been 91 percent. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Manjhi thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and the Railway Minister for the Railway Budget.
This initiative of the Central Government for the progress of Odisha has further strengthened the resolve to build 'Prosperous Odisha', Manjhi wrote on X. He said that I am confident that the 'East-West Freight Corridor' approved in the current budget will usher in a new era in the industrial and commercial sectors of Odisha.
Majhi said the use of AI-based thermal cameras and optical fiber cables (OFC) to prevent elephant deaths on railway tracks will set a precedent towards wildlife conservation. Expressing his government's commitment to provide all possible support to the Central Government for the overall development of Odisha, the Chief Minister said that with our combined efforts, Odisha will definitely become a progressive and prosperous state.
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