Union Minister of Railways, Communications and Electronics and Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw on Sunday shed light on the Centre’s expanding focus for the development of railways and telecom sectors in Odisha. He thanked the Prime Minister for his record allocation to Odisha in the Railway Budget 2022, as this fund allocation would ensure early completion of all the ongoing and new projects.
Vaishnaw said all railway projects in the State are progressing at a full speed and the people of Odisha will see all their dreams come to reality gradually. “For the completion of any project, three things always play vital roles. The first one is willpower, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has it in abundance. The second one is funds that have generously been provided to the State. And the third one relates to the process involved like acquisition, forest clearance etc. Efforts are on to complete these processes,” said the minister.
When asked about his push for the State government for better coordination in getting land acquisition processes for pending rail projects, the minister said, “Since we are working in a federal structure, the State and Centre are equally responsible for successful completion of any project be it Railway, Telecom, IT or Electronics manufacturing.”
Vaishnaw, who is also Communications and Electronics & Technology Minister, highlighted that the Prime Minister in December last year approved the installation of 3,933 new mobile towers for Odisha which will be carried out with an investment of Rs 3200 crore. It will help connect around 6000 villages in Odisha. “Soon we will acquire land for the sites. We will also have Right of Way (RoW) for laying up fibre cable. Then the work will start.”, he said.