Cuttack, Sept. 30: Decks have been cleared for a vending zone near SCB Medical College and Hospital with OrissaHigh Court endorsing the Traffic Management Committee's feasibility report on a new site.
For three years, the project, which is essential to lessen traffic jams on the stretch that runs in front of the hospital gate, could not materialise due to a dispute over location.
The court expects Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) to construct the vending zone by the end of November at the site recommended by the Traffic Management Committee, which is headed by the police commissioner.
The road from Mangalabag Chhak to Bhubananda Odisha School of Engineering runs in front of the SCB hospital main gate. It is a congested stretch with many medicine shops, diagnostic centres, nursing homes, restaurants and several other businesses running on either side.
Further from the hospital gate to Engineering School, there are institutions such as Central Red Cross Blood Bank, Acharya Harihar Regional Cancer Centre and a State Bank ATM, among other entities. It is one of the busiest roads in the city and for obvious reasons, ambulances ferrying sick people continuously run on this stretch.
The CMC had build 80 shops on the drain along the SCB boundary wall as part of the vending zone project in 2012. But in the same year, the high court had ruled them as "unauthorised constructions" and directed the civic body to remove them after the Traffic Management Committee raised objections.
The high court had directed two advocate members of the Traffic Management Committee to submit a report with regard to feasibility of the vending zone near SCB hospital.
This report, which was submitted on September 23, said: "Any vending zone beside the compound wall of SCB Medical College and Hospital starting from Mangalabag Chhak to Acharya Harihar Regional Cancer Centre is not feasible. But the space available after that stretch up to Bhubananda Odisha School of Engineering beside the wall of SCB Medical College and Hospital can be utilised for the establishment of a vending zone."
"The vending zone can be established on that stretch for the benefit of the general public and attendants of patients as the road is quite wide at this point and is 50 metres away from the main gate of the hospital," the report said.
"Approving the report, the division bench of Justice Indrajit Mahanty and Justice S.C. Parija directed the Cuttack Municipal Corporation to complete construction of the vending zone within six weeks," said Advocate Jaydip Pal, member of the Traffic Management Committee.
Objecting to the 80 shops constructed earlier by the CMC as part of a project by the SCB Medical College and Hospital, the Traffic Management Committee had said: "A vending zone at this location will aggravate the existing traffic situation and patients in emergency may not have free access to reach the hospital."
The committee had pointed out that if the vending zone on the drain was allowed to be constructed, all the garbage from the shops would be dumped there and this would create an unhygienic situation.
"The entire flow of drain water will be blocked and a flood-like situation will be created in the nearby areas. This will have an adverse impact on the health situation," the committee had said.
