A few days back a memorandum was submitted with Union Railway Minister, Hon’ble Prime Minister, Hon’ble CM of Odisha, State Railway Ministers and other important officials of Indian Railways on the issue of creating a new East Coast Railway Division headquartered at Rourkela. The factors influencing this demand were
1.Repeated neglecting attitude of Chakradharpur Division and South Eastern Railways
2.Advanatges of East Coast Railways e.g faster growth in East Coast Railways
3.Creation of a new Railway Zone at Visakhapatnam.
However there are some people, who are ignorant of the potential of Rourkela and in order to achieve their goal , are haphazardly going for the inclusion of Chakradharpur Division under East Coast Railways or including the SER and SECR parts of Odisha in Sambalpur Division of East Coast Railways. Their logic is that since Rourkela is located near , the divisional headquarters e.g. Sambalpur and Chakradharpur , it is not possible to establish a headquarter at Rourkela.
Rourkela is 101 kms. from Chakradharpur and 150 kms. from Sambalpur . There are a number of railway divisional headquarters in India which are located within a distance of 10 kms. to 150 kms.
Some of these divisions are as follows :
SECUNDARABAD(South Central)-HYDERABAD(South Central)- 10 kms.
VARANASI(North Eastern)-MUGHALSARAI(North Eastern)- 17 kms.
HOWRAH(Eastern)-SEALDAH(Eastern)- About 20 kms. –Within the city limits
MUMBAI(Western)-MUMBAI(Central)- Within the city limits
GUNTUR(South Central)-VIJAYAWADA(South Central)-34 kms,
ASANSOL(Eastern)-ADRA(South Eastern)- 50 kms.
ASANSOL(Eastern)-DHANBAD(East Central)- 59 kms.
TIRUCHIRAPALLI(Southern)-MADURAI(Southern)-60 kms.
AHMEDABAD(Western Railways)-VADODARA(Western Railways)- 100 kms.
SONPUR(East Central)-SAMASTIPUR(East Central)- 110 kms.
BILASPUR(South East Central)-RAIPUR(South East Central)- 111 kms.
HOWRAH(Eastern)-KHARAGPUR(South Eastern)-116 kms.
JAIPUR(North Western)-AJMER(North Western)- 135 kms.
BANGALORE(South Western)-MYSORE(South Western)- 139 kms.
ALLAHABAD(North Central)-VARANASI(North Eastern)- 142 kms.
Why not Chakradharpur Division or South Eastern Railways?
It should be noted that except South Eastern Railways all other Railway Zones have approved at least one divisional headquarter in each state administered by them. South Eastern Railway Zone is perhaps the only railway zone in India which has not given a divisional headquarter in all the states administered by it, the burning example is Odisha. While more than 600 kms. (including 406 kms. of Chakradharpur Division) of railway route in Odisha is administered by South Eastern Railways, it has not provided a divisional headquarter in the state.
South Eastern Railways has four railway divisions under its jurisdiction i.e. Adra, Kharagpur, Chakradharpur and Ranchi. While the former two are in West Bengal, the later duo are in Jharkhand. According to some trusted sources, there was a proposal for creation of Rourkela Division along with Sambalpur, Khurda Road and Visakhapatnam under East Coast Railways, however the proposal was cleverly put aside due to the conspiracy of some vested interest groups.
Why not Sambalpur Division?
Sambalpur Division of East Coast Railways has around 954 kms. of railway route under its administration, which covers a major part of Western Odisha. The total revenue of this division for a period of 21 months was calculated Rs. 563 crores which means an annual revenue of Rs. 322 crores! While only Sundargarh district pays a revenue of Rs. 800 crores to Railways and with neighboring Jharsuguda and Sambalpur districts the figure goes upto Rs. 2000 crores. Further entire Sambalpur Division is non-electrified while each and every route of the proposed Rourkela Division is electrified, hence no question of extension of Sambalpur Division to other areas.
The new Rourkela Division has around 550 kms. of existing railway route which is a little bit less than that of Nanded Division of South Central Railways(619 kms.) and after the creation of the proposed Talcher-Bimalagarh(154 kms.), Bansapani-Bimalagarh(45 kms.), & Kiriburu-Bolanikhadan(30 kms.), Kiriburu-Gua(25 kms.), Jharsuguda-Sundargarh Town-Talsara( around 100 kms.), the expected route kms. of Rourkela Division will shoot up to 895 kms.
Why Bondamunda?
Bondamunda ,which is located at a distance of 7 kms. from Rourkela Junction, is the second largest marshalling yard of Asia, but when it was established in 1960’s , it was the largest marshalling yard in Asia, covering a huge area. There were three locomotive sheds in Bondamunda -: Steam, Diesel and Electric, but now only two i.e. Diesel and Electric exist after the closure of the Steam locomotive Shed. More than 300 locomotives are sheltered at Bondamunda, which is the second highest in the country after Visakhapatnam. Bondamunda is the largest locomotive shed , not only of South Eastern Railways ,but entire Eastern India. Bondamunda is an important junction connecting the main Howrah-Mumbai route with the route connecting Rourkela and Ranchi. Bondamunda connets the mines of Kiriburu and Barsuan with Rourkela, with a branch line. Hundreds of acres of railway land are lying vacant and are easily being encroached. Many railway bungalows are also lying vacant and have turned into “ghost houses” without proper care. All these bungalows can be used for office works and other purposes of Rourkela Division. Further the ARM office at Bondamunda needs to be upgraded into DRM office.
Hence Rourkela Division should be constituted immedietly.
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