Sonepur: The four-laning work of a major road project in Sonepur has remained incomplete over the years due to land hurdles and other bottlenecks. The administration has failed to acquire land for it.
According to reports, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had laid the foundation stone for the four-laning of the bypass road from Mahanadi bridge to Kunja Chhak in February, 2019.
The PWD had awarded the contract of the road expansion work to a super class contractor at a cost of Rs 6.79 crore in August, 2019.
Apart from the four-laning of the 3.26 km long road, the project entails a divider and 20-metre wide drains on both sides.
It is said that the expansion work has failed to make any progress due to land hurdles. Patches of government, private and endowment lands are to be acquired for the road project.
The problem is that people have encroached upon the government land, but the administration is taking no steps to remove the encroachments.
Earlier, 1,165 trees were cleared in the area to make space for the road expansion. But, when it came to removing the encroachments, the revenue department and the local civic body got into a tug of war and stepped back from it.
Since then, the work has been stalled.
When contacted, executive engineer of the PWD, Damodar Kaibartya said the work has been caught in a deadlock due to problems around the land acquisition. “Efforts are on to settle the issue to carry forward the work,” he added.
PNN