Dikhyaa Mohanty 
A 138.32-kilometer new railway line linking Bargarh Road and Nawapada Road is now being built by Indian Railways as part of the company’s continuing massive infrastructure expansion in Odisha. This strategic project is expected to create jobs, increase regional growth, improve connectivity, and have a major positive impact on the region’s freight and passenger transportation. On September 10, 2024, the Railway Board approved the project, which came with a total cost of Rs. 2621.92 crore. The project’s budget breakdown is as follows: Signal & Telecom Engineering: Rs 209.07 crore, Electrical Engineering: Rs 305.55 crore, and Civil Engineering: Rs 2107.30 crore.
The State Government of Odisha has extended its full support by providing land free of cost and offering a grant of Rs 300 crore for the project. The project necessitates the acquisition of 924.64 hectares of land, amounting to approximately Rs 364 crore. The land to be acquired includes 752.524 hectares of private land, 123.233 hectares of government land and 48.913 hectares of forest land. The acquisition process is progressing smoothly, with the competent authorities for land acquisition in both Bargarh and Nawapada districts appointed via gazette notifications published on October 15, 2024, and November 29, 2024, respectively.
The planned rail line will be an electrified broad gauge (BG) mail line that will bypass the crowded Jharsuguda-Bilaspur-Raipur circuit and provide a shorter alternative route from Bargarh Road to Nawapada Road, passing through Padmapur. This new route will enable faster transit of persons and commodities by cutting the trip distance by 87 km when compared to the Sambalpur-Titilagarh-Raipur route and 53 km when compared to the Sambalpur-Jharsuguda-Raipur route. Accessibility throughout the region will be improved by the project’s 13 stations, which will include two existing stations and eleven new ones.
