After a long wait, the historic Paralakhemundi railway station, which has been given a new look under the Amrit Bharat Station scheme, was inaugurated on Friday. The station, which was redeveloped at a cost of about 17 crore rupees, was inaugurated virtually by Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Jalandhar Cantonment in Punjab. On this occasion, 75 redeveloped railway stations from 20 states of the country and seven stations from Odisha were also inaugurated. Paralakhemundi MLA Eng. Rupesh Panigrahi attended the local program organized at the Paralakhemundi station premises as the chief guest, while DRM of Raigarh Railway Division Amit Singhal, District Collector Akshay Sunil Agarwal and SP Prahladshuray Meena were present.
However, a controversy also arose during the inauguration ceremony. Local intellectuals expressed their anger over the absence of a statue or photograph of Gajapati Maharaja Gaurachandra Gajapati Narayan Deo in the station premises despite his historic contribution to the construction of the Paralakhemundi railway line and station. Many intellectuals including Sanjay Jena, Bhagwat Padhi protested against this and demanded that the Maharaja be given due respect. On this issue, District Magistrate Akshay Sunil Agarwal said that the administration will write a letter to the Railway Ministry to commemorate the historical contribution of the Gajapati Maharaja. MLA Rupesh Panigrahi also supported the demand and said that he had already written a letter to the Railway Ministry in this regard and would write again if necessary.
He added that the new station has various modern facilities for the passengers, while the attention of the Railway Department has been drawn to the construction of more trains from Paralakhemundi to Bhubaneswar, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad, an overbridge near the station and a proposed level crossing. On the other hand, DRM Amit Singhal said that as per the prevailing protocol of the Railways, no statue of any person can be installed in the station premises. However, he clarified that if there is any demand regarding the naming of the station or any other demand, it will be considered by the Railway Department, if it is conveyed in writing. An interesting cultural program was presented by the students of the Central School on the occasion of the inauguration.
