Utkal Association demands super-fast Bhubaneswar-Tatanagar intercity

Utkal Association, a prominent organisation of around 10 lakh odd Oriya speaking people in Jharkhand, today urged the railway to immediately start a daily super-fast intercity train between Bhubaneswar and Tatanagar.The association also demanded to change the existing route of Puri-Haridwar-Puri Utkal express and run it via Tatanagar-Chaibasa-Kyonjhar instead of Jharshugoda.Addressing a press conference here, president of the association Mr R N Sathpathy said more than 2 lakh Oriya people living in Kolhan division of Jharkhand were facing great difficulty due to the closure of all the night trains to Orissa for last 19 months.''The bus owners have increased their fares on Jharkhand- Orissa routes exorbitantly to take undue advantage of the situation.Students, businessmen, patients all are being affected. The bad condition of national highway 33 till Baharagoda makes the journey impossible for serious patients. We have requested the railway ministry to act on our demands at the earliest to lessen our woes,'' he said. General secretary of the association Mr T C Mohanty was also present on the occasion.Plying of trains on Tatanagar-Orissa and Kharagpur route had been suspended since May 2010 soon after the Howrah-Mumbai Jnaneswari express accident.The accident, caused by the damaging of track by naxalites, took place near Jhargram station in neighbouring West Bengal and claimed 148 lives