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A stretch of the dilapidated Karamtoli-Ormanjhi road that will be widened soon. Picture by Hardeep Singh |
From bumpy to beautiful, a capital thoroughfare is all set for a thorough makeover.
The dilapidated 25km artery from Karamtoli Chowk in the heart of Ranchi to Ormanjhi on NH-33 will be turned into a commuter’s dream over the next 15 months, courtesy a Rs 29-crore blueprint drawn up by the state road construction department.
The single lane road, which is barely 10ft wide now, will boast two flanks with a combined width of 22ft after the makeover and promises to cushion harassment when traffic along NH-33 via Booty More and BIT-Mesra Chowk goes haywire. The new road will also reduce distance and travel time for residents of Morabadi and Kanke to various highway destinations.
“We have awarded the contract to Ramgarh-based agency Classic Coal Construction Private Limited. Work on the project will begin soon. The deadline is 15 months from the award of contract, which was the last week of June,” said Umesh Prasad Sinha, the executive engineer of Ranchi road division.
The 25km NH-33 link passes through the Regional Science Centre in Chiraundi (Morabadi) and vegetable fields of Kanke before reaching Ormanjhi from where commuters can either take the Ramgarh-Hazaribagh route or the Jamshedpur-Purulia route.
Earlier, the road was looked after by the rural works department, but later was handed over to road construction. It comes under the category of major district road and will also meet the proposed alignment of phase VII of Ranchi Ring Road, connecting Vikas Vidyalaya (NH-33) on one side and Kathi Tanr on the other side (NH-75 or Ranchi-Daltonganj road). So, the rush of traffic would ease further after the revamp.
However, doubts remain on the pace of work because the road construction department is yet to take a final call on Ranchi Ring Road’s phase VII after the contractors failed to meet an extended deadline of June 30.
The ambitious Rs 156-crore project had been flagged off in 2007, but only 40 per cent work has been done despite two extensions to construction majors Somdutta Builders and Shrinet & Shandilya. The authorities have two options now — one, to grant another extension; two, to cancel the agreement with the two firms and award the remaining work to another agency through competitive bidding.
The construction companies have cited payment issues behind the tardy pace of work. Sources in the department said that road construction secretary Rajbala Verma, who was in Mumbai, had returned and was likely to take a final decision on the matter in a day or two.
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