Bhubaneswar: Despite receiving huge funds from the Centre for developing the state capital as an ideal place to live in, the smart city has failed to provide adequate space to the tax payers, especially the pedestrians, moving on the Kalpana-Rasulgarh stretch of the city.
While the civic authorities have been focusing on adding more amenities to VIP stretches like the Secretariat Road, Acharya Vihar Road, Airport Road and others, their blatant neglect in providing facilities to the commuters on the Kalpana-Rasulgarh stretch is evident from the sordid state of affairs there. This stretch is frequented by people coming out from the railway station, industrial units, and residents of adjacent populated colonies as well as people travelling to Puri and Cuttack.
A scrutiny of the footpaths meant for the pedestrians on both the sides of this arterial road revealed neglect of the civic authorities despite the fact that the road is juxtaposed to the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) office, which takes care of the civic issues in the Capital city.
People living in the area adjoining the Kalpana-Rasulgarh Road complain of poor upkeep of the footpaths, much of which have either eroded or have been encroached upon by vehicles and vendors making them unusable.
“The entire stretch of the road is in a bad shape due to government apathy. In some places there is no footpath at all and where there is there are potholes, destroyed slabs on the footpath or open sewage holes. At some places iron roads or other construction materials are dumped on the footpath making it risky for the pedestrians,” said Akhya Samal, a resident from BJB Nagar in the city.
There are others who expressed serious concerns over the random encroachments. “Several small shops, hoardings, tyres, extension of shops and other encroachments are flourishing under the nose of the BMC, while their offices are at walking distance from the area. These encroachments discourage the pedestrians who want to walk on the footpath,” said Sonu Maharana, a student from Laxmisagar.
Several citizens claimed that the civic authorities are more concerned about providing services in areas where VIPs reside or where international events are hosted, but ignore areas that are densely populated.
