Rourkela: Muktikanta Biswal on Monday embarked on a 17-day walkathon to Bhu- baneswar to meet and apprise chief minister Naveen Patnaik about the necessity of the IGH super specialty hospital and the Brahmani bridge in the city.

Biswal had shot into limelight for undertaking a foot march to Delhi to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi to espouse the hospital's cause and remind him of his assurance in this regard to the people of Rourkela during his visit. However, his efforts to meet Modi had not met with success.

Before leaving for Bhubaneswar, Biswal said: "I am going to Bhubaneswar to meet our chief minister and apprise him about the urgent necessity of the IGH super specialty hospital and construction of the Bramhani bridge."

Biswal will keep walking through Jharsuguda, Sambalpur and then Angul and Dhenkanal. "I will walk a distance of nearly 520km. I shall cover around 20km every day to reach Bhubaneswar in nearly 17 days. That is my plan so far and let us see what lies for me ahead," he said.

In another development, the BJP, led by its Rourkela unit secretary Jagabandhu Behera, held a march till Baikuntha ghat, where Naveen had laid the foundation stone for the Koel barrage in 2013.

Reacting to Biswal's walk, Behera said: "We have nothing to say, nor have we anything to do with him. He is welcome to do anything for Rourkela, and we are doing on our own. We are worried about the proposed Koel barrage, for which the chief minister laid the foundation stone and then forgot it."

Reacting to the BJP's demonstration, Ragunathpalli MLA Subrat Tarai said: "They no nothing about the real developments happening, and they are simply trying to gain cheap publicity and politics. The barrage will definitely come up and the chief minister has not forgot it. A Rs 340 crore worth tender, which is a global one, will be floated shortly, while the work would begin after monsoon."