SAMBALPUR: The double-laning of Burla ring road project to strengthen connectivity to Burla under Sambalpur Municipal Corporation (SMC) remains a non-starter five years after it was proposed.
The government decided to provide an alternative road to Burla from Sambalpur in 2016 considering the increase in traffic congestion and expansion of the city.
According to the proposal, the Burla ring road will connect Chaunrpur under Sambalpur Municipal Corporation (SMC) with Ashok Niwas in Burla. However, construction of the road from Chaunrpur to Mundoghat was supposed to be taken up in the first phase.
While the complete length of the ring road will be around 14 km, the length from Chaunrpur to Mundoghat, which has been proposed to be constructed in the first phase, is around 3.5 km.
Sources in the public works department (PWD), which will execute the work, said the tender for first-phase work has been finalised. But the work is yet to start due to land hurdles.
Around 41.83 acres of private land will be affected by the project. Initially, the government planned to buy the land but the owners refused to part with the land at the price fixed by the government.
Executive engineer of PWD division-II, B Pattnaik said, “We have given a proposal to the government to acquire the land. Work on the project could make progress only after approval of the land acquisition proposal.”
The Sambalpur University, VSS Institute of Medical Science and Research (VIMSAR) and Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology (VSSUT) are all located in Burla.
The proposal for ring road was welcomed by the residents. It will also provide better connectivity to Basantpur, where the Sainik School, CRPF Group Centre, permanent campus of IIM-Sambalpur, second campus of Gangadhar Meher University (GMU) and the campus of Odisha State Open University (OSOU) will come up.
The road will also be helpful in expansion of the city to the other side of the Mahanadi.
The government decided to provide an alternative road to Burla from Sambalpur in 2016 considering the increase in traffic congestion and expansion of the city
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