Cuttack, May 23: An eviction drive was today launched against illegal encroachers in and around a major bus stand, popularly known as the Angul bus stand, here at Badambadi.

Officials of the Odisha State Road Transport Corporation (OSRTC) carried out the eviction drive with the assistance of the Cuttack-Bhubaneswar police and the Cuttack Municipal Corporation.

“Today, many illegal encroachments inside the Angul bus stand were evicted. More such drives will also be launched at two other bus stands at Badambadi in subsequent phases,” said a senior official of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar police.

Official sources said officials of the Traffic Management Committee headed by police commissioner S. Roy had recently conducted a spot verification and subsequently decided to carry out the eviction drive.

The eviction follows a high court direction on a PIL filed by one Rini Rath regarding the inconvenience caused to passengers and other commuters because of the space crunch arising out of illegal parking of buses and encroachments on the busy stretch at Badambadi.

Over 100 buses from various parts of state are parked on the either side of the busy stretch from Badambadi to Link Road despite restrictions such as no-parking zone.

The encroachments were stopping development work from being carried out as most of the waiting halls inside the bus stands had been occupied by vendors, leaving little room for passengers.

Over 50 unauthorised shops, kiosks and hoardings were removed from inside the Angul bus stand that spreads over 1 acre at Badambadi.

More than 3,000 daily passengers use the Angul bus stand to travel to Angul, Banki, Kendrapara, Paradip and other areas.

“There are plans to improve passenger facilities inside the bus stand. To this end, the unauthorised shops and portions of the shops that had encroached on the bus stand were demolished,” said OSRTC law officer Gopal Prasad Jena.

Jena said passengers were inconvenienced by the encroachments at the bus stand, including those that took up room at the waiting hall. Provisions will be made for drinking water facilities and adequate lighting at the bus stand. “Passengers were also inconvenienced by waterlogging at the bus stand during the rainy season. Following the eviction, the land inside the bus stand will be levelled and other basic amenities will be created at an expenditure of Rs 5.5 lakh,” said OSRTC engineer Nihar Ranjan Parida.

Parida said work on renovating the Angul bus stand would be completed before the monsoon by next month. Parking facilities of buses inside the bus stand would also be streamlined.