The Indian Railways had sanctioned an electric loco periodical overhauling (POH) workshop at Narla inKalahandidistrict in the budget 2017-18 with an estimated cost of Rs 186.37 crore.But construction work of this project is yet to start. The Railways has received only 141.07 acres out of 328.35 acres of land required so far.

In 2016, the Railways had faced widespread criticism and protest from people of the state for shifting the proposed wagon maintenance workshop in Kalahandi district to Visakhapatnam of Andhra Pradesh. It had invited sharp political reactions from all the parties. Even chief minister Naveen Patnaik had taken up the issue with the then RAILWAY minister to give an alternate project in Kalahandi district.

Later the Centre had sanctioned the electric loco POH workshop in the Union Budget 2017. This is a maintenance workshop for electric engines. It had sanctioned a token amount in 2017 for the beginning of the project. Four years have already passed, but construction work of the project could not start.

An amount of Rs 3.28 crore has been allocated for the project up to the Budget 2021-22, said the reply of the Union minister.