Sambalpur ring road. Telegraph picture

Sambalpur, July 26: The residents of Sambalpur wanted a bypass road from the national highway to the town and the ring road was conceived. The other objective of the ring road was to protect the city from floods. Unfortunately, the road has been lying incomplete.

The road was supposed to be 12km long with an estimated cost of Rs 37.64 crore.

However, following a suggestion from the technical advisory committee, some changes were made in the original project. And the estimated cost in the renewed project was Rs 43.7 crore rupees. The renewed proposal was approved by the government.

Local residents had appreciated the proposal of this ring road and were excited about this project. But the project remained incomplete.

“It was supposed to provide an alternative road for the commuters. The foundation stone for the ring road was laid on October 30, 1995. The road from Mandlia to Kacheri chowk of Sambalpur has been completed. In 2004, because of the election, the further notification for the ring road of Sambalpur could not take place. And the authority has left it incomplete,” said Govind Agrawala, a local resident.

“It remains incomplete due to corruption and lack of willpower of the political leaders,” he said.

“There was a proposal for a 12km road on the bank of river Mahanadi. It was conceived for the diversion of traffic. Moreover, it was conceived to protect the city from flood. As per the initial proposal, the road was supposed to originate from national high way at Laxmi Dungri and touch the national highway again at Dhankauda. But so far only 4km has been completed. The road from Mandlia to Kachery Chowk, that is from the 3km mark to the 7km mark, of the ring road has been completed by the irrigation department. For now, the government does not have any proposal for the ring road,” said Prabhat Chandra Pattanaik, executive engineer of Sambalpur irrigation division.