Ganjam welcomes wagon factory announcement

Business Standard, March 15, 2012

Union railway minister Dinesh Trivedi’s announcement to set up a wagon factory at Sitalapalli in Ganjam district has been welcomed by the people of the district.

It may be noted that the proposal to establish a wagon factory in the state was first mentioned in the Railway budget of 2011-12. But the then Railway minister Mamata Banerjee had said, the factory would come up either at Bhubaneswar or in Kalahandi.

But in this year’s budget the site has been changed to Sitalapalli in Ganjam district.

“The state government had already identified about 101 acres of land at Sitalapalli after the then Railway minister had announced for a wagon factory in Orissa under the public, private partnership (PPP) mode. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had also asked the Railway ministry to take necessary step for setting up of the project, about a year ago,” said local BJD MLA (Gopalpur) Pradeep Panigrahi.
He said, the Railway ministry was responsible for the delay in implementation of the project, when the land has already been identified by the state government for the proposed factory.
He urged the Railway ministry to immediately start work on the project.
Senior Congress leader and former Union minister Chandra Sekhar Sahu also welcomed the Railway minister’s announcement. “The proposed factory will boost the economy of the area, while several youths will get direct and indirect employment opportunity” ,Sahu said.
Sources said, after inspection of four sites in different places of Ganjam district jointly by the officials of the East Cost Railway and Ganjam district administration last year, finally the site near Sitalapalli was selected for the project.
The land coming under Berhampur tehsil, belongs to the government. The selected site is about 1.5 km from Jagannathpur station and near the proposed Industrial Park of the Tata Steel.
The detail project report for the proposed factory would be worked out by the railway ministry, while the ministry is likely to float the bid soon inviting the companies to participate in the project, sources said.