The accident-prone stretch that runs parallel to the airport's boundary wall. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, July 17: Soubhagyalakshmi Parida, a resident of Pokhariput and an IT professional, was driving down a dark Kargil Road last night when a speeding car suddenly appeared out of nowhere before her. With construction material dumped all over making the stretch narrow and slippery, she lost control of her scooter and it skidded off the road.

Thankfully, Parida escaped with minor injuries. But the thousands who navigate the stretch of Kargil Road from Palaspali to Pokhariput, parallel to the airport boundary, might not always be so lucky. Over the past week, several people have met with minor accidents on the stretch on which construction material has been dumped indiscriminately by the railways.

The problem is particularly acute at night because the streetlights don’t work Accidents are frequent, as the construction material dumps have made the road narrower and slippery.

“The railway authorities should have left some space from the edge of the road while building the wall. They haven’t done so. The space between the airport wall and the boundary wall under construction is very narrow. For the thousands of commuters passing this stretch everyday, the road has become dangerous,” said Parida.

Pokhariput is an upcoming development zone where many residential colonies are coming up. College and school-going boys and girls navigate this stretch on their two-wheelers often. They are all having difficult rides because of the construction materials dumped on the roadside. In the past week, local residents said they had witnessed at least 10 minor accidents on this stretch.

Retired government servant Nrupa Kishore Patnnaik of Pokhariput said: “Excavated materials from various work sites were already being dumped on the road between Palaspalli and Pokhariput. Now, the construction of the boundary wall by the railways has exacerbated the problem.”

Municipal commissioner Vishal Kumar Dev has written letters to the secretary, works, regarding the dumping of excavated materials on either side of Kargil Road. Local residents have also tried to stop transporters from dumping such material late at night.

Councillor of ward No. 30 Hrudayballabh Samantray said: “It has become dangerous for two-wheeler riders to navigate the stretch at night because of the dumped building material.”

He said power supply to the streetlights on that stretch of Kargil Road had been disrupted because of a malfunctioning transformer. “It went out of order a fortnight ago and then again last week causing another disruption.”

Senior divisional manager (co-ordination) B.K. Das said: “The East Coast Railways has taken up development work in many parts of the Khurda division. The inconvenience caused because of the construction of the wall near the airport boundary will be looked into and the authorities concerned will be told to take extra care so that commuters are not inconvenienced more than necessary.”