As construction work continues, sands lie dumped at the sewerage site. Telegraph pictures

Bhubaneswar, Jan. 16: The residents of the posh Baramunda HIG Colony are facing hardships, as one of its major roads connecting the Fire Station with Rental Colony lies in a bad condition because of incomplete sewerage pipeline work.

With the sewerage line work yet to be given a finishing touch, the road that is daily used by more than 50,000 people has been reduced to half its width.

People are angry over the fact that even the Public Works Department (PWD) is not making any efforts to complete the construction work. They are planning an agitation to bring their plight to the notice of the authorities.

Apart from Baramunda Housing Board Colony, the residents of Rental colony, Jagannath Vihar, SUM Hospital and villagers of Saanpur, Ghatikia, Bharatpur, Andharua, Kantabada, Chandaka, Nuagaon, Malipada, Gothapatana and Paikrapur use the road as their main link to the city.

The new city bus plying between Nuagaon and Phulnakhara also uses this route (No.504). A number of buses belonging to different educational institutions too use this route.

Commuting on the stretch becomes all the more difficult during the busy hours between 9.30am and 11.30am and 5pm and 7pm when students come out of the Central School on the CRP campus.

“The sewerage pipeline work has been going on for the last two years but 20 per cent of the work towards the Fire Station Square end is yet to be completed.

With half of the road becoming useless for the people because of the ongoing project, this stretch has become extremely dangerous for commuters.

The sand filling work undertaken by the PWD has been shoddy and makes two-wheeler driving particularly risky,” said retired chief engineer, irrigation department and secretary of the HIG Community Welfare Association (CWA), Chittaranjan Kar.

Members of the association have also met the authorities of the sewerage board but nothing has changed so far.

Officials told the members that the work had got delayed because the contractor concerned was not interested in executing the project.

“The delay has also increased the pollution load of the area with dust flying almost round the clock. Interestingly PWD employees have begun drain-laying work on the side of the road but the sewerage line work is yet to be completed. As a result even the drain work cannot be done properly,” Kar added.

Local councillor Pradip Kumar Sahoo said that while the sewerage pipeline work was nearing completion the PWD work on the drain was going slowly.

This work, which was begun from the Rental Colony end, has made slight progress in the last few months.

“Heaps of sand is lying at several places obstructing the traffic. Besides the road stretch continues to be uneven,” he added.

Sahoo informed that senior citizens of the area were planning an agitation on the coming Sunday to force the authorities to take note of their grievances.

Activist and former CWA office-bearer T.N.Panda said: “So much of sand lying on the road has led to accidents as two-wheelers skid frequently on the road. But the authorities continue to be callous to the plight of the people.”

Pramod Kumar Sahu, a local businessman, said the more the delays in completing the project work the more the chances of accidents.