Berhampur: The Silk City has not yet been upgraded to a Smart City as promised to it by the government. Recently, the Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BeMC) has begun a survey for building smart roads in the city.
The civic body’s budget meeting for 2021-22 Thursday approved an expenditure of Rs 20 crore for this project. It’s proposed that 20 smart roads will be built in some select lines in 40 wards of BeMC.
The earlier elected council had decided to convert the Silk City into a Smart City. All preparations for this had been completed in accordance with the guidelines of the government of India.
Then mayor and commissioner K Madhvi and Nikhil Pawan Kalyan, respectively had visited Bhubaneswar and Delhi several times in this regard.
However, Rourkela scored over Berhampur in the final pecking order. The Silk City was dropped out of the list of Smart Cities. Now, the state government has decided to build smart roads in 114 urban areas of the state in phases.
Berhampur and the Chief Minister’s Assembly constituency Hinjlicut have been included in the first phase. This has enthused the civic body. A sum of Rs 20 crore has been earmarked for this in this year’s budget.
According to the engineering section of the BeMC, the survey work has been expedited. Under the smart roads project, the proposed pathways will be widened.
Special measures will be taken to ease vehicular traffic on these roads. Separate roads will be built for two wheelers and pedestrians. This will smoothen the existing traffic issues in the city, official sources said.
It may be mentioned here that the BeMC has a network of over 400 km of pucca, concrete and kutcha roads. The contract firm for the Janibili drinking water supply project has dug roads at many places in the city on the alibi of laying of pipelines.
The condition of these roads has been miserable. While the main roads of the city have been repaired as they are used by senior officers and politicians, the condition of the lanes and by-lanes in the city has been pathetic.
Denizens have demanded expeditious completion of the construction of the smart roads project and the survey work before that.
PNN