Kaliapani: Traffic problem becoming acute in Kaliapani mining area in Jajpur district as it takes nearly an hour on a bike, a car or by walking to cross a distance of 1km, a report said.
This has sparked resentment among the people and guardians schools and college-going students as they warned to take to the streets if the traffic problem is not resolved at earliest.
This has happened as cargo trucks compete among themselves to reach various mines as fast as they can due to implementation of first come first loading norms in the mines. The Kaliapani mining region has 12 mines out of which mineral extraction is being carried out presently in six mines.
The truckers visiting the mines of Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC), IMFA, Tata Steel and Facor Vedanta chromites mines to load chromites park their trucks on both sides of the road leading to unnecessary traffic jams on the road. Commuters travelling on their bike or car or by walking are left stranded on the road due to this traffic jam as they little space to travel on the road with trucks parks on both sides of the road.
Such severe traffic jam was witnessed recently when commuters were left stranded on the road for hours together. The situation came to boil as students of OMC Kaliapani High School, Stewart School, Saraswati Sishu Vidya Mandir and other schools were left stranded on the route for over two hours after the end of their school hours. The mining officials leaving for office failed to reach their office in scheduled time and reached their office after an hour
People were expecting that the situation will improve but things turned bad from worse as the road was gridlocked Wednesday. As a result, a school bus carrying students from Kolipasi area was left stranded on the route for two hours. The traffic jam was so severe as an ambulance also failed get passage and left stranded on the route.
The traffic jam was so severe that it continued till late in the evening. The situation occurred as hundreds of trucks were seen parked on both sides of the road from the Tata Steel gate to the OMC mines gate at Kaliapani. However, the local police allegedly did not take any steps to clear the road for smooth movement of vehicles. Locals alleged that the traffic jam was so severe that was impossible to move on even by walking or on a bicycle.
They alleged that trucks visiting the OMC owned South Kaliapani mines, Sukurungi mines, Facor-Vedanta’s Ostapal and Bhimatangar mines and IMFA mines for loading chromites are parking their vehicles on Tomka- Mangalpur road to get their serial number for entry into mines. The OMC has made arrangements for parking of trucks at Kansar Kolipasi. However, the drivers are parking the trucks on both sides of the road much ahead of their entry time inside the mines.
The security personnel of the mines are allegedly showing favourtism and handing out serial numbers as per their whims for which the trucks illegally park their vehicles on the road for hours together.
The South Kaliapani mines has separate gates for entry of 10, 12 and 14-wheeler trucks which just on its opposite the IMFA and Tata Mines have their entry gates. As a result, trucks remained parked on both sides of the road for a stretch of six km. The illegal parking of the trucks on both sides of the roads shrinks the space on the road and leaves little space for the bikers, pedestrians or four-wheelers like cars to travel through it.
Similarly, scores of trucks coming to carry chromite from the Ostapal mines of Facor Vedanta also are parked on the both sides of the road. The trucks parked in lines extend up to IMFA mines and join the line of trucks visiting the IMFA mines.
When contacted, Kaliapani police station IIC Susant Kumar Das more trucks are coming to the mines due to first come first service rules. However, the truckers park their vehicles on teh road due to lack of adequate parking arrangement in the mines. The problem could be resolved if each of mining firm identifies separate parking slots for their mines, he added.
PNN
