Bhadrak: The Ministry of Road Transport and Highway had initiated efforts to boost connectivity to the Dhamra port in Bhadrak. A four-lane road was proposed though a notification under its Bharatmala Pariyojana. But the fate of the ambitious project has remained confined to the notification for land acquisition only.
Surprisingly, the PWD, meanwhile, has initiated work on its own project (a three-laned road) on the same proposed route.
Reports said, there has been no headway in the 61.66 km long road project from Jamjhadi to Dhamra under Bharatmala, even though effort to lay the road had been initiated a year ago.
The PWD department had earlier issued a notification for its road project and started work.
Notably, this project is a component of the National Highways Authority of India’s (NHAI’s) 451.44 km proposed highway which will pass through Satpada, Konark, Astaranga, Paradip, Ratanpur, Dhamra, Chandipur to reach Digha.
It was said that 56 villages in Basudevpur and Chandbali blocks will be affected by the project. It will stretch from Harishankar Bindha to Jaydurgapatana in Dhamra.
As per the preliminary estimate, over 535 acres of land in 28 villages will be acquired. This was intimated to the NHAI-Bhubaneswar.
The district administration had reported that 1500 people will lose their land to the project.
Though a year has passed since the notification of the land acquisition, there has been no progress to the land acquisition for the project.
The farmers who have been issued notification for their land acquisition are unable to cultivate their land, it was alleged. They are even unable to sell off their land, despite their financial hardships.
Another problem is that four employees specially appointed for the projects at the collectorate have not got their salaries for the last four months.
Surprisingly, the PWD has initially started the road project, but it was being made three-landed on tri-party partnership of PWD, DPCL and DRDO. It is being constructed by a private agency of Bhubaneswar at an estimated cost of Rs 212 crore.
But the Bharatmala Pariyojana has been pushed aside, it was alleged.
Amiya Pattnaik, the executive engineer of the PWD said that the four-laned project under Bharatmala has been stalled temporarily by a state-level committee. “PWD has started its three-laned road,” he added.
Land acquisition officer Kartik Mandal said that the proposal for the four-lane road was sent to the authorities a year ago after notification, but there has been no approval from the authorities of NHAI.