Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik inaugurated the controversial and long-awaited flyover at Bomikhal here Wednesday evening.
The flyover will be useful for the people who used to suffer from traffic congestion on Cuttack Road. Now, commuters from Kalpana-Puri side can straightway go to Sahid Nagar without any hassles. Vehicles from Sahid Nagar can proceed towards Rasulgarh-Cuttack side using the bridge.
However, many commuters and locals have expressed resentment over the flyover’s traffic routes that seem to have aggravated their plight. The three-way bridge with its openings near Esplanade Mall, Ekamra Hall and Maharishi College will have one-way traffic from the respective areas, but can only be accessed from Bhomikhal and Sahid Nagar.
According to Sambit Patnaik, a commuter, “You can access the bridge from Bomikhal and reach Sahid Nagar. But, if you wish to return you will have to reach Esplanade Mall and return to Bomikhal via the service road. Similarly, if you want to reach Sahid Nagar from Rasulgarh you will have to access the bridge from Ekamra Hall as opposed to the current use of railway crossing under the bridge.”
The construction of the flyover had begun in 2012 at an estimated cost of Rs 35 crore, but it was completed with a revised expenditure of Rs 45 crore. There was inordinate delay due to land acquisition problems and two mishaps.
The Public Works department and ECoR had signed an agreement to execute the project in 2008-09. The work started in 2012-13 with a deadline of 2015-16. However, land acquisition problems on Sahid Nagar side and an extension plan on Bomikhal side delayed the project. It got a fresh deadline of 2016-17, but due to two back-to-back mishaps, it was delayed once again.
On September 10, 2017, a 10-metre-wide slab fell off the flyover leaving one person dead and several others injured. The state government suspended an executive engineer, an SDO and a junior engineer of the Works department for gross negligence of duty. On October 10, 2017, the government blacklisted Panda Infra Pvt Ltd, the executor of the project, holding the agency responsible for the mishap. On the night of May 3, 2018, a retain wall of the flyover collapsed, leaving one dead and four injured. It was then that PWD was entrusted with the work.
The flyover has 20 pillars on Bomikhal side, 16 on Rasulgarh side and 18 pillars on Sahid Nagar side. The authorities have installed LED streetlights, both on the flyover and on the approach roads down the lane.
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