The encroached stretch from the Old Station area to NH-203 in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Cuttack, Sept. 8: Orissa High Court today set a four-week deadline for the state government to remove all encroachments blocking an approach road to Bhubaneswar railway station causing inconvenience to commuters.

The high court issued the order on a public interest litigation, which the court had suo motu registered after treating the contents of a report — “Raze Drive: Hit some, miss some”, published in The Telegraph on June 9 as “a matter of public importance”.

The report had mentioned that the encroachments, blocking part of the road linking Bhubaneswar railway station with the Cuttack-Puri Highway (Budha Nagar), and dumping of garbage in the area had caused problems for local people and commuters.

On June 19, the court fixed August 8 for listing the matter, while directing the state government to file its response by then. On August 8, the court adjourned the matter for hearing after two weeks when the state counsel sought little more time to obtain instructions.

When the case came up today, the state counsel again sought time.

However, the division bench of Chief Justice Amitava Roy and Justice A.K. Rath allowed four weeks time to the state government with a direction to remove the encroachments — which the court had taken note of in the PIL.

Commuters are facing severe difficulties in reaching the railway station, as this approach road has remained blocked for years due to encroachment by slum-dwellers.

Apart from the squatters, another major problem is the dumping of garbage on the road that creates an unhealthy atmosphere.

The Telegraph report had also mentioned that the problem of dumping of solid waste on roadside had aggravated after 2010 as the East Coast Railway constructed a boundary wall to keep their land free from encroachment.

The slum-dwellers have since been dumping their daily waste on the road. The problem of solid waste disposal on the road heightens when garbage collection is irregular.

Civic authorities had allegedly made provision for water by digging a borewell, but as pipe-water connections were given on the road, the slum-dwellers are practically living on the road leading up to the railway station.

At night, the road remains fully blocked with the slum-dwellers parking their vans and rickshaws on the stretch.

Among those named as parties in the PIL are the general administration department, revenue and disaster management department, housing and urban development department, Bhuba-neswar Development Authority and the civic body.