Water-filled craters at Kanika Square in Cuttack. Pictures by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, Aug 28: Commuters in the Millennium City are going through a harrowing time negotiating the heavy rush of vehicles on prominent streets of the city. Disorganised traffic system and bad road conditions have only compounded their woes.

The entire stretch of road from Kanika Square to Mission Road is full of craters, posing a threat to the lives and limbs of hundreds of commuters.

“It has become very difficult to commute as many roads in the city are full of craters. Similar is the situation at Kanika Square and Mission Road which urgently need repair,” said Manoranjan Nayak, 31, a commuter.

Everyday, hundreds of vehicles ply between Mission Road and Kanika Square. The road acts as a connecting link between Deula Sahi, Chandi Mandir, Cantonment, Barabati Stadium, Sutahat, Buxi Bazar and other areas.

The road happens to be one of the busiest in the city. Local residents say a lot of commuters, especially school and college students, face problems because of the bad road conditions here, as most of the reputed schools and other educational institutions are located on the stretch from Mission Road to Kanika Square.

“Things have worsened because of lack of initiative on part of the civic authorities to repair the road which has remained damaged for the last couple of years. Students and senior citizens face a lot of problems while passing through the road from Kanika Square to Mission Road,” said Deepak Das, 76.

He further said that because of bad road engineering, the level of the houses was getting low compared to the level of the main road.

Moreover, because of accumulation of rainwater, it becomes very difficult to identify water-filled craters that dot the road.

“Bad road condition and accumulation of rain and drain water on the main road near Sailabala Womens’ College causes problems for commuters as well as local residents,” said Suhasini Panda, 38, a homemaker.

Officials of Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) admitted that roads in different parts of the city are in bad shape. However, they said steps would be initiated soon for necessary repair work.

“Work for repair of the road from Shelter Chhak to Kanika Chhak has recently been completed. However, there have been problems in carrying out repair work in other areas because of rain. We plan to repair all the roads that are in bad shape before Dussehra,” said a CMC official.