Angul: The boating facility at Narayan Sagar in this town was inaugurated June 6, 2013. Despite the facility being well appreciated by the locals, it was withdrawn just three months after its introduction, for reasons yet to be made public.
And it has not been made functional even for a single day since the service was last denied to joy-riders.
Sources in Talcher-Angul-Meramandali Development Authority (TAMDA) said, the then mines and steel minister and Angul MLA Rajnikant Singh had inaugurated the facility. Rs 4 lakh was spent to bring it up to the mark while a private company had donated two boats.
After inauguration, a private company was given the responsibility of running the ‘Nauka Vihar’. It was then decided that TAMDA and the company would share the total income at the ratio of 60:40. For safety of the riders, TAMDA had employed two security personnel and also provided four life jackets. For a half-an-hour ride, Rs 20 was charged per person.
After some days, the private company discontinued the boat ride for reasons best known to it. The TAMDA authority also did not take any step in this regard though it was well aware of the service being stopped. The two boats have also gone missing from the site, and the TAMDA authority has no information as to what happened to those.
Locals, who are critical of the authority for leaving such an ambitious project non-functional, alleged that the boats had been stolen from the site.
When contacted, TAMDA president Shakti Prasad Patnaik said he could hardly say anything about the project as it was commissioned well before he joined.
PNN
