Post News Network
Keonjhar/Anandapur, August 5: Even as a huge controversy surrounds a proposed bridge at Belabahali in Keonjhar district, Union minister for road and surface transport Nitin Gadkari, it is learnt, has directed the National Highway Authorities of India (NHAI) to conduct a fresh survey on it while a technical committee of the NHAI has been asked to review its work again.
Reliable source said on the basis of the previous technical report of the NHAI about the location of the bridge across river Kusei, an expert team from IIT-Khargpur will conduct another survey and submit its report to the NHAI. Works will be carried out accordingly.
The directive from the Union minister has come after a delegation of the state BJP led by its president K V Singh Deo met Gadkari and apprised him of the problem arising out of the bridge, which has been proposed as part of the expansion work of the NH-215. The bridge was being strongly opposed by the people in several peripheral villages.
July 7, when the administration reportedly made efforts to start the bridge construction with deployment of police force, locals had a pitched battle with the former. Twenty people including seven policemen and a magistrate were injured during the confrontation. Thereafter, police started crackdown on agitating people of Belabahali and 117 people including 63 women were arrested and lodged in Keonjhar jail. As the issue continued to intensify, political leaders including those of BJP rushed to the village and assured the people of taking it up with the Union minister.
According to reports, the Union government had announced to expand NH-215 in 2004. A Hyderabad-based construction company was awarded its construction work for a 165-km stretch from Panikoili to Rimuli, September 28, 2011. The NHAI wanted to replace a 70-year-old bridge with a 360-metre bridge as part of the road expansion work. However, locals opposed it and apprehended that the bridge would cause flood in the area and tried to stall it several times in the past.
