Jaleswar: Though the South Eastern Railway (SER) has given green signal for a railway over-bridge at Jaleswar-Digha NH to Nuabazar Railway Level crossing in Jaleswar town of Balasore district, the project has been progressing at a snail’s pace due to delay in land acquisition.
Work on the 60-crore bridge began in 2010 and was aimed at increasing volume of the train traffic as well as road traffic at Jaleswar town and its surroundings. However, as ten years have passed, residents here are yet to benefit from the overbridge.
The project should have been completed in October, 2019, but the construction is progressing slowly and only about 40% of the work has been completed because of the delay in land acquisition for laying the overbridge.
Kharagpur Railway Division Executive Engineer SP Tripathy said, “We need 2 acres of land to build pillars for the overbridge. However, the landowners are yet to let go of their property without being compensated and are at loggerheads with the Public Works Department and the Revenue Department.”
The delay in land acquisition and ongoing lockdown has resulted in the project being in limbo for the last five months. As a result people are suffering from traffic rush problems to cross the level crossing line at Nuabazar.
Tripathy further said the Railway department has sent two letters to PWD department and Balasore Collector in order to expedite the land acquisition work.
When Assistant Executive Engineer of PWD department, Ashok Kumar Panda, was asked in this regard he replied, “We couldn’t hire Andhra Pradesh labourers due to the lockdown following which there has been a delay in the construction work.”
“Steps will be taken to complete the overbridge in few months after the lockdown,” he added.
PNN
