New Delhi:
In his third visit to the state in a month’s time, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to launch a slew of centrally funded projects worth as much as Rs 1,545 crore in Odisha on Tuesday, according to official sources. PM Modi will visit Balangir, where he is scheduled to address a rally, besides inaugurating and laying the foundation of the development projects, mostly in the railway sector, they said. He had toured Bhubaneswar and Khurda on December 24 and Baripada in the first week of January. On December 24, the prime minister had launched projects worth Rs 14,523 crore for Odisha, while on January 5, he unveiled programmes worth Rs 4,733 crore, taking the total value to Rs 20,801 crore in the past month, officials said.
The prime minister, on Tuesday, will dedicate to the nation the electrification of Jharsuguda-Vizinagaram and Sambalpur-Angul lines, spanning 813 km, completed at a cost of Rs 1,085 crore. The project will ensure seamless rail connectivity on the line and reduce running time, a senior railway official said. It will also reduce diesel consumption and lead to a reduction of Green House Gas emissions. Modi will also dedicate the doubling of 14.273 km of Barpali-Dungaripali and 17.354 km Balangir-Deogaon road lines, completed at a cost of Rs 189.3 crore. It forms a part of the 181.54 KM Sambalpur-Titlagarh doubling project. Among other railway projects, he will dedicate a Multi-Modal Logistics Park (MMLP) at Jharsuguda, built at a cost of Rs 100 crore.
The prime minister will also inaugurate 15 km Balangir-Bichhupali new railway line built at a cost of Rs 115 crore. It is a part of the new 289-km Balangir-Khurda road line which connects to Howrah-Chennai main line on Khurdha roadside and Titlagarh-Sambalpur line at Balangir.
He is slated to lay the foundation stone for a permanent building at Kendriya Vidyalaya, Sonepur, to be constructed with an investment of Rs 15.81 crore.
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Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah is also set to visit Odisha on Friday where he will meet booth-level workers in Cuttack. Shah has set an ambitious target for the BJP to win at least 120 of the 147 Assembly seats in the state. The BJP had won 10 Assembly seats and one of the 21 Lok Sabha seats in 2014.
