Sambalpur: The National Highway-55 connecting Sambalpur with Cuttack has turned into a death trap with several road mishaps taking place during the last eight years. However, there is a reason for relief as the project has reached its last leg, a report said Wednesday. The road was in bad shape and the ongoing construction work was blamed as reason behind these mishaps.
Meanwhile, 80 per cent of the works on the highway has been completed while construction of underpasses (for the movement of elephants) and footpaths are pending. The highway works will be completed by September while the tunnels will get completed by December, this year. This was stated here by project director N Nageswar Rao of National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) to this correspondent, Wednesday. Works on the bridge were first assigned to a consultancy agency Gayatri Constructions.
However, the project failed to make any headway after the agency stopped the works midway. Later, a notice was issued to Gayatri Construction and the work was given to another firm AIPL from January 2023. The new firm expedited the construction and was instructed to finish the work by July. However, work got delayed by two months and will be completed by September. The construction of underpasses has started while bridge works will continue in this rainy season. The highway project is expected to get completed by December if work progresses as per plan. It is being supervised and reviewed frequently and the agency has been reminded of the deadline.
Notably, the expansion works of NH-55 were taken up in 2015 after a series of agitations by the residents and various voluntary outfits. However, the project failed to make any headway due to a delay in land acquisition as forest land was involved. The plan outlay for the project was fixed at Rs 18,000 crore but the consultancy agency is implementing it at Rs 1,255 crore at 30 per cent rebate. The project includes the construction of 147-km stretch of highway
