Following is an excerpt from a report in Pioneer.

The Ministry of Railways has decided to extend the Howrah-Sambalpur Ispat Express up to Titlagarh from March 1. The train will leave Sambalpur at 4.50 pm and arrive at Titlagarh at 8.20 pm. In the return direction, the train will leave Titlagarh at 5.20 am and arrive at Sambalpur at 8.35 am to go Howrah. The train will stop at Hirakud, Bargarh Road, Barpali, Balangir and Saintala between Sambalpur and Titlagarh. The timings and stoppages of the train between Sambalpur and Howrah will remain unchanged.

With this extension and the proposed new train between Koraput and Rourkela, there will be 4 daily trains in the Titlagarh-Balangir-Sambalpur-Jharsuguda-Rourkela segment of western Orissa. The other two are Koraput Howrah express and Dhanbad-Allepey express. In addition there are the Yeshavantpur-Hatia (biweekly) and Yeshavantpur-Tata (weekly) express.

The Titlagarh-Sambalpur sector has two more daily trains: Raipur-Bhubaneswar express and Rayagada-Sambalpur Express.