India News | Prime Minister Sanctions Rs 492 Crore Puri-Konark New Rail Line: Vaishnaw

Bhubaneswar, Feb 20 (PTI) Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Tuesday announced a 32-kilometre-long new rail line project connecting Puri and Konark with trains having Vistadome coaches.

Vaishnaw made this announcement immediately after he was re-elected to the Rajya Sabha from Odisha with support of BJD.

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While supporting his candidature, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on February 15 had said “BJD supported Vaishnaw for the larger interest of the state's railways and telecom development.”

“It was a long-standing demand of the Odisha people. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has Tuesday sanctioned the Rs 492 crore new railway line between Puri and Konark with a view to creating a spiritual, heritage & coastal corridor,” Vaishnaw told a press conference here.

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Vaishnaw also said that the project has been sanctioned and fund is available.

Work for this project will start just after getting land for construction of the rail line.

Altogether, 217 acres of land is necessary for this project, he said.

“We will seek the state government's cooperation to acquire land for the project, which shall include 4 to 5 special tourist hubs to facilitate spiritual tourism,” Vaishnaw said.

Passengers travelling in the Vistadome trains can see the outside as the doors, side panels and roof will be made of glass.

“Jagannath culture will be in promotion in the trains on this route. Apart from this, 4 to 5 tourist Hubs will be made in this Rail Line. Railways will be in coordination with Jagannath Temple Administration for promotion of Jagannath culture in the Rail section,” he said.

The culture of Lord Jagannath stands for religious tolerance, co-existence of all religions communal harmony and international integrations, according to a Odisha government website.

"Once the line is commissioned, this will promote spiritual, heritage and coastal tourism. Trains with Vistadome coaches will run in this line. This will connect Konark's Sun Temple with Shri Jagannath Temple in Puri," he said.

Vaishnaw, also the minister for communications and IT portfolios, said that work is complete for 684 of the 5333 telephone towers sanctioned for Odisha.

Work has started for another 3112 towers, he said, adding, the total cost for these towers will be Rs 5,600 crore.

Vaishnaw released five Commemorative Postage Stamps on Legendary Poets of Odisha and Cultural Heritage of Western Odisha through video conferencing from Bhubaneswar.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)