Kendrapara: With the tourist season setting in, footfall at the Bhitarkanika National Park (BNP) is on the rise. But journey on the road to the park is nothing less than a nightmare.
Resentment is brewing among visitors and locals who use the Rajnagar-Talachua Road to reach Dangamala inside BNP as the road to the ecotourism spot is a bad condition.
It has become difficult for even a cyclist to move on the road. So, one can guess the harrowing experience of people travelling in vehicles.
During the day one gets the impression that fog is covering the area as dust fills the entire area endangering the fauna and flora of BNP, said Jagannath Das, a local.
Apart from tourists, the people of Talachua, Rangani, Dangamala, Krushnanagar, Baghamari, Keruanpala, Mahulia, Iswarpur, Ghadiamala, Kandira and Bhitargada panchayats too depend on the road to go to Rajnagar for reaching the police station, post office, tehsil office, block office and the Rajnagar CHC.
It has become difficult for tourists and locals to use the eight km stretch from Rajnagar to Jarimula.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had laid the foundation stone for a road from Rajnagar to Jarimula before the last panchayat polls. But work on the road did not start for a year.
Local MLA Anshuman Mohanty once again laid the foundation stone for the project November 25.
Meanwhile, work on the road has been going on at a snail’s pace. A sum of Rs 10.81 crore was allotted by the R&B department for the project. Only half the road has been completed, although the deadline was August 31, 2018.
The public and tourists are angry as the R&B department is not speeding up work on the Rajnagar-Jarimula Road.
Tourist Alakarani Nayak said, “I visited the Dangamala Crocodile Research Centre inside BNP with my brother on a bike through the Rajnagar-Jarimula route. We had a bitter experience as we got covered with dust.”
When contacted, deputy executive engineer of R&B department in Rajnagar, Saroj Kumar Nayak, said the road work could not be speeded up during the rainy season.
Meanwhile, the second layer of the road was completed recently. The bitumen laying for the road would start in the next week. The engineer said the road would be completed by March 2019.
PNN