An under-construction flyover at Rajmahal Square in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Sept. 25: Lack of co-ordination among departments has resulted in inordinate delay in construction of a flyover at Rajmahal Square. Though construction was scheduled to end in December this year, the work is progressing at a snail’s pace.

The project began in March 2009 and the initial deadline for its completion was March this year. According to sources in the roads and buildings division of public works department (PWD), the delay is because of lack of co-ordination among Bhubaneswar Municipality Corporation (BMC), the traffic department and general administration (GA) department.

“We get little time to execute the construction due to heavy traffic. At the same time, the vending zone is also creating problems for us as traffic gets chaotic during the day. But BMC authorities need to take concrete action regarding the vending zone,” said a senior officer of the department. He also said that despite asking the GA department to demolish the parking lots around the area, nothing had been done so far. However, chief engineer of roads and buildings division, Bijan Kumar Behera, said that the delay was because of the rainy season.

“At present, construction work is being carried out for the central pillar which will take some time. The removal of a statue installed by the culture department also added to our problems,” he said. He was hopeful that the new flyover bridge would be fully operational by March 2012.

On the other hand, mayor Ananta Narayan Jena refuted the allegations and said the authorities were taking concrete steps to facilitate the construction work.

“The vending zone has no connection with the overbridge. There are some vendors who sit on the footpath and we have identified a spot to relocate them to facilitate the construction,” said Jena. The traffic department also rebuffed the allegations.

“We are lending our full support to the work. Despite the chaotic traffic, we have never allowed traffic problem to come in the way of construction,” said a senior police officer. Amidst allegations and counter allegations, residents are the worst sufferer. They have to wait to cross the roads, which gets compounded during the busy hour.

“Everytime the authorities miss the dead line we face the problem of congestion. It now takes almost half an hour to travel from Kalpana square to AG square, thanks to the construction, which seems to be incomplete,” said Sarojkant Dhal, a local resident.

Residents also claim that confusion while travelling has resulted in several accidents around the area. “No one can predict which vehicle is going in which direction. This has paved the way for small accidents on a regular basis,” said Debashis Mishra, another resident. He also demanded quick completion of the 37.45 crore flyover so that the residents could heave a sigh of relief.