Bhadrak: Even as Bhadrak town has been expanding and so also its population, residents of the municipality area have been waiting for the city bus service planned six years ago.
Thousands of people have to face commuting problems in the crowded town. Had the bus service been in place, their commuting woes would have been relieved to a great extent, said residents. The service has been left unrolled for the last six years, as the authorities have not yet readied the necessary infrastructure.
According to reports, the authorities have been making efforts since 2014 to run the city buses, but they have not been successful.
The urban development department has held several rounds of meetings with the civic body authorities of Bhadrak and Balasore to put the ambitious project in place. A committee has been formed and christened as the Balasore-Bhadrak Urban Transport to look after the service. Collectors, SPs, RTOs of both the districts and executive officer of civic bodies are part of the trust.
But it was stated that this service is not being implemented due to lack of infrastructure. As per guidelines, the Bhadrak civic body should provide four acres of land for a bus terminal so that the urban development department can make buses available.
The civic body has proposed to the urban development department that city buses can get parking facility at Bhadrak old bus stand and Charampa OSRTC bus terminal. But this proposal remained stuck at the urban development department. Residents said the project may not see the light of day until four acres of land is provided to the department.
City bus service has been launched in Balasore, but Bhadrak is still eagerly waiting for the service.
The Bhadrak municipality comprises 30 wards while its limits have been ever expanding due to a sustained rise in population. In 1950, Bhadrak was declared an NAC with only 12 wards. In 1988, it was made a municipality comprising 30 wards.
While the limits of the town keep expanding from Maa Bhadrakali shrine upto Korkora, Arnapal, Gelatua and Nalnaga in four directions, lack of public communication facility has been a problem in the town.
Residents say 24 years have passed since Bhadrak sub-division was made a district, but the civic body has not made much progress as expected in the last two decades.
Initially, it was decided that 10 city buses would run from Bhadrak to Dhamnagar, Basudevpur and Chandbali. But this initial work has not started as yet, locals lamented.
Executive officer of Bhadrak Municipality Manorama Bhuyan said, “As per the government plan, this service was experimentally launched in Balasore. The authorities concerned have temporarily halted this service in Bhadrak.”