Eviction drive at Ranihat Medical Road in Cuttack. Picture by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, Aug. 31: Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) and city police are all set to intensify their anti-encroachment drive to decongest major roads in the city.

“Efforts are being initiated to launch eviction drives in various parts of the city to facilitate smooth flow of traffic. We had also carried out an eviction drive on Ranihat Medical Road yesterday,” said L.N. Mohapatra, joint commissioner of the CMC.

Mohapatra said the ongoing eviction drive will be a continuous process of the CMC and such kind of initiatives to make city roads free from encroachment will be intensified in the days to come.

Several roadside encroachments, illegal constructions and kiosks were demolished along the busy Ranihat Medical Road yesterday.

“The eviction drive is a part of the ongoing efforts

to decongest major roads. Commuters have to face a

lot of problems because of traffic snarls at Ranihat. There is a proposal to introduce one-way traffic here, along with two other places, in the city,” said assistant commissioner of police (traffic) Krushna Samal.

In June, a massive eviction drive was launched in which encroachments from Bajrakabati Road to Khannagar were evicted in the presence of CMC officials and the police.

The eviction drive was launched by the traffic management committee following a high court order to clear encroachments that were creating problems in the free flow of traffic on major city roads.

A number of locations were identified for the anti-encroachment drive at a meeting chaired by police commissioner B.K. Sharma on June 3.

Besides Bajrakabati and Khannangar, eviction drives were subsequently launched in areas such as Buxi Bazar, Choudhry Bazar, Baropathar and Tinikonia Bagicha in Cuttack city. Sources in the city police said many roads and thoroughfares were facing problems because of illegal occupation along with heavy traffic. Efforts were being initiated to clear roadside encroachments to facilitate better traffic flow.

It has, however, been observed that squatters have again set up business at places were eviction drives were earlier conducted, including on Bajrakabati Road.

“The ongoing eviction drive has failed to ensure that the roads remain free from illegal occupation. The vendors come back to the streets within a few days of being evicted. Along with conducting eviction drives, the civic authorities should also consider providing alternative vending zones to the evicted vendors,” said Seikh Samim, a resident of Bajrakabati Road.

“Adequate measures are being taken to ensure that the evicted places are not encroached upon again. We are undertaking eviction drives at regular intervals,” said a senior police officer.