Abandonment Of NH-55 Bypass: Powerful Road Construction Co Cares Little

By SANTOSH MOHANTY

The road construction agency does not seem to be paying heed neither to the instructions of Angul district administration nor the Deputy Speaker of Odisha Assembly nor Dhenkanal MP nor Union Transport Ministry to expedite completion of four lane bypass route from Panchamahala to Banarpal.

Half finished flyover at Saradhapur on Angul-Bantala road

The work for ambitious four laning of NH-55 that connects two business centres of Odisha of the eastern India, Cuttack and Sambalpur, is going on a snail's pace since 2018. It was scheduled to be completed by 2020, but barely fifty percent of the four lane work of the highway is finished till date. The purpose for which the bypass route, connecting Panchamahala to Banarpal, has not been fulfilled yet as nobody knows when the bypass route will become a reality to contribute to easing of traffic.

The bypass route is heaped up with soil and the flyovers are half-finished, standing as if they are mangled steel and concrete structures abandoned years ago.

Angul District Collector Siddharth Shankar Sswain, in the recent past, has time and again convened meetings of the concerned officials and engineers urging them for early completion of the bypass route. Yet, the meetings did not bear any fruit.

Panchamahala-Banarpal bypass route lies abandoned

Deputy Speaker of Odisha Assembly Rajanikanta Singh, who is also Angul MLA, has reprimanded the construction agency to complete the work in three months or action will be taken against them. The given time frame has surpassed, yet the agency did not seemed to be little worried.

Sources said the agency has been resorting to dilly dallying tactics by using Corona and Omicron pandemic as shields to justify elongation of four lane work. The contractual company has also alleged that resource crunch is one among the prime reasons for delay in work. This allegation seems to be baseless as the Union Government has already announced that there is no shortage of funds for construction of four and six lane roads including expressways.  

Dhenkanal MP Mahesh Sahoo had met Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadakari in New Delhi in December 2021 to urge him for exercising his influence for early completion of four lane work. Gadakari, it is learnt, that he has given strict instructions to the construction firm to finish the work at the earliest. Nearly a month has elapsed, yet the construction company does not seem to be woken up from its slumber.

One can gauge how powerful is the construction agency that even takes the direction of Union Ministry carelessly. Denizens of Angul urged the Union Ministry to take immediate action against the road construction company which is responsible for devastating road traffic situation in the district. The road construction company has left Sambalpur-Angul-Cuttack NH-55 horrible and it is not motorable. Over 20 persons were killed in road accidents in the past three years especially for delay of four lane work.