New Rs 492 Cr Railway Line to Connect Puri & Konark: Railway Minister Vaishnaw

Bhubaneswar: Union Railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Tuesday announced a 32-km-long railway line between Puri and Konark to connect the Jagannath temple and the Sun temple, along with a Vistadome coach. This is part of the Centre’s efforts to promote spiritual, heritage and coastal tourism.

Vaishnaw was in Odisha on Tuesday to review the progress of rail projects as well as collect his letter of election in the Rajya Sabha polls.

Vaishnaw informed that this Puri-Konark railway line project will be taken at an expenditure of Rs 492 crore.

“It was a long-pending demand of the people. Puri and Konark have a lot to do with our spiritual tourism, heritage tourism, and coastal tourism focus. We will run a Vistadome train with walls and roofs made of glass so that travellers can get a view of the fleeting scenes and landscape. Besides, we have the plan to showcase various aspects of the Jagannath culture inside the train to tourists and travellers by using ARVR technology,” the railway minister said.

According to him, the work on this project will start when the Odisha government acquires and hands over 215 hectares of land needed for the project.

As per the plans, there will be four to five tourist hubs on this 32 km stretch of coastal railway track.