Rourkela (Sundargarh): Due to delay in providing the required land for a second bridge over the Brahmani river, the project seems to be still a dream for the people of Sundargarh district.
As per sources, the firm, which had been awarded the contract for construction of a six lane bridge and a four- lane road has stopped the construction work due to non-availability of land as per requirement. The contractor should have been provided 90 percent land before construction or road and bridge but till now it has not happened.
The land has not yet been provided as some locals are refusing to hand over their land. Hyderabad based GKC Infrastructure Limited had bagged the contract from Birmitrapur to Balughat (Rourkela) of 29.1 km construction of the six lane Brahmani bridge and four- lane CC road at a cost of Rs 381.75 cr.
A section of people in that locality had even moved the Orissa High court and have succeeded in bringing a stay order.
Significantly, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced to complete the project at the earliest April 1, 2015. Since then the bridge has been a big issue for political parties as they are trying to get mileage out of it.
It may be noted here that the first bridge over the Brahmani river was constructed in the 1960s after the RSP was launched in 1955 in order to provide plant road connection. With heavy traffic on the bridge every day, the bridge is getting weaker. The bridge has already developed cracks and repairs have failed, leading to long hours of traffic problems every day.
Due to regular cracks on bridge congestion most of the time on present bridge, the need for another bridge on Brahmani river rose in the 1990s.
In 2012, a budget of Rs 884 cr was sanctioned and Gammon Infrastructure Pvt Ltd (GIPL) was awarded the construction contract of Birmitrapur on PPP mode for a whooping Rs 1,000 cr.
Since then, the project of the bridge has been on halt for one or the other reason.
PNN