In the absence of dedicated parking lots, people park their vehicles on the road creating traffic congestion. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has failed to keep many of its promises in 2012. We take a look at a few of those projects that didn’t see the light of the day, even years after being announced

Foot overbridges

With the growing population and rise in the vehicular movement, BMC decided to go for three foot overbridges (FOBs) at Jayadev Vihar, Rupali Square and near Master Canteen in 2010. But even at the end of 2012, not a single FOB was constructed. While the Jayadev Vihar plan was not even included when the FOBs were cleared for tendering process this year, the local councillor took the matter with the civic authorities to include it again. Though the authorities claimed that the work for the FOBs will be over within two years, no one is sure about their fate.

Elusive parking lots

Though roads were widened and renovated, the city is still fighting space crunch for parking lots. While three proposed multi-level parking lots on the Janpath are yet to see the light of the day, not a single existing parking space in the city has been renovated. While the main road in front of Unit-I Market remains encroached by the parked vehicles everyday, there is little progress on the renovation plan of Unit-I Market which could provide an alternative space (entire basement) for parking.

Disgruntled traders

Out of three major public-private partnership projects in the city — Keshari Mall, BMC-Bhawani and BMC-Panchdeep — the last one is yet to be ready. However, in case of Keshari, the civic body is yet to allocate its share to traders. In case of BMC-Bhawani Complex, the civic body is yet to distribute space among the displaced traders who were originally doing their business at Saheed-Nagar Haat till 1996.

Night shelters

Though the city was planning to have three new night shelters at different localities to serve the needy in winter for the last two years, lack of space and local protests have been major hurdles.

Drainage channel renovation

Encroachment and lack of land are proving to be major hurdles when it comes to renovating the natural drainage channels in the city. Though money for this project was spent by BMC through the water resources department, a lot has to be done to renovate all the 10 natural drainage channels. Till now, only some progress has been achieved to renovate parts of drainage channels No. 1, 2, 3 and 4.