Bhubaneswar: The Odisha grovernment have prioritized twenty one road projects in mining areas as per the feedback received from the people and users.
The list of the projects were reviewed in a high level meeting held on virtual mode under chairmanship of chief secretary Asit Tripathy from Lokseba Bhawan recently, in which principal secretary steel and mines Surendra Kumar outlined the issues for discussion.
The chiief seccretary Tripathy set the time frame for each project and directed the departments of works, National Highway and rural development to monitor progress of each work closely and ensure their timely completion. Emphasizing that “The roads are very crucial both for boosting the local economy and faster evacuation of minerals”, Sri Tripathy directed Collectors of Sundargarh and Keonjhar to “streamline the traffic movement for unhindered progress of the road construction”.
Out of the prioritized roads, 6 were under administrative control of works department, 7 were under NHAI, and 2 roads were under rural development (RD) department. The RD roads were Rugudi to Kalmanga 6 kms and Kalmanga to Jaribahal 18 kms.
Additional chief secretary rural development Pradeep Kumar Jena appraised that the road from Rugudi to Kalamanga would need a bridge of around 31×3 mtr span. The roads would be constructed with M-40 grade concrete with CC pavement; and, both the roads would be completed by July, 2021. The NHAI roads included the road from Parsora ( near Rimuli) to Rajamun on NH-250 ; Keonjhar to Tileibani NH-59; Cuttack to Sambalpur NH-55; Biramotrapur to Barkot via Rajamunda NH-143; Remuli to Panikoili NH-20; Chandikhol to Talcher NH-53; and, Kalta Mines to Roxy Rly Siding NH-20. Target was set to complete these roads by March, 2022 in different phases.
Similarly, works department roads included the road from Nelda-Barbil 5.6 kms; Bardil-Badasahi 8.9 Kms; Nayagarh to Jajang 18 kms; Tensa to Barsua public siding 15 kms; and, repair of the bridge over Karo river. Review showed that these road projects were under progress.
Development commissioner Suresh Chandra Mohapatra, works secretary Krishan Kumar, IPICOL MD Nitin Bhanudas Jawale, OMC MD R. Vineel Krishna and NHAI regional officer Dr R.P. Panda participated in the deliberations.
