Puri: The district administration has directed the Roads and Buildings (R&B) department officials to immediately repair a multipurpose cyclone shelter in the Holy City here after photos of the abandoned structure went viral on social media.
The administration has directed the Roads and Buildings (R&B) department to repair the cyclone shelter soon after District Collector Balwant Singh and Additional Collector Binoy Kumar Dash spotted photos of the structure on social media.
The multipurpose cyclone shelter was constructed at the campus of Bishwambar Vidyapeeth here as part of the state government’s preparedness to deal with natural calamities. Former Puri MLA Maheshwar Mohanty had inaugurated the shelter house December 11, 2004.
Immediately after the inauguration, the authorities of Bishwambar Vidyapeeth had started conducting classes at the shelter house.
Subsequently, some doors and windows of the shelter house were damaged due to lack of maintenance. The school authorities had stopped holding classes at the shelter house a few years ago and the structure has been lying abandoned since then, sources said.
Last year, members of a voluntary organisation had undertaken a cleanliness drive on the school premises and removed plants and bushes around the abandoned shelter.
A few days ago, someone had uploaded a few photos of the abandoned structure on social media. “We have visited the cyclone shelter at Bishwambar Vidyapeeth and found that the structure has no major problem. There are only a few broken doors and windows. We have asked the R&B department executive engineer to repair the structure,” said the additional collector.