No public transport system in 506 GPs in Odisha

BHUBANESWAR: Altogether 506 gram panchayats (GPs), mostly in coastal districts, are yet to have a public transport system.
The highest number of 84 GPs are in Jagatsinghpur district followed by 69 in Khurda, according to the commerce and transport department.
There are 55 GPs with zero transport connectivity in Cuttack district, 21 in Ganjam, 59 in Jajpur, 17 in Puri, 39 in Angul, 21 in Sambalpur, 17 in Balasore, 34 in Bhadrak, 17 in Dhenkanal, 11 in Gajapati, 21 in Jharsuguda, 24 in Kalahandi, nine in Kendrapada, five in Keonjhar and three in Nayagarh.
"It is matter of concern. The chief minister has directed the department to introduce Biju Gaon Gadi Yojana (BGGY) in all these 506 GPs in the next phase," said commerce and transport minister Ramesh Majhi.
Official sources said besides the 506 GPs, there are other GPs in Koraput, Malkangiri, Balangir and Rayagada districts with poor public transport facilities.
"The reason being lack of proper road network," said an officer.
The state government is planning to develop railway projects in Nabarangapur, Malkangiri, Nayagarh, Boudh, Kandhamal, Kendrapada and Deogarh districts by forming special purpose vehicles (SPV) because there is no train network in these areas. "The state government would take up the matter with the Centre," said Majhi.
Earlier, to boost rail connectivity in Maoist-hit Malkangiri and Nabarangpur districts, the state government had proposed Jeypore-Nabarangpur and Jeypore-Malkangiri projects.
Besides providing land for free, it had announced to bear 50% and 25% construction cost of Jeypore-Nabarangpur and Jeypore-Malkangiri lines respectively.
More than two decades after the approval, a number of railway projects hang fire due to fund crunch and other hurdles.
These include Khurda-Balangir railway project (289 km, sanctioned in 1994-95), Haridaspur-Paradip rail line (82 km, sanctioned in 1995-96), Angul-Duburi-Sukinda SPV project (90 km, sanctioned in 1997-98), Talcher-Bimlagarh (154 km, sanctioned in 2004-05) and Jaleswar-Digha rail line (40 km, sanctioned in 2010-11).
The state has proposed the railway to form SPV by roping in different central agencies to expedite Khurda-Balangir line through SPV, sources said.
The government also decided to conduct special camps in colleges to grant driving licenses to the students.