Cuttack, June 17: When the countdown to Nabakalebar and rath yatra festivities has begun, you expect projects to run, but they crawl.

What's worse, slow-moving projects have come in the way of smooth flow of traffic on national highway No. 5 that links the city to Bhubaneswar.

With several projects, including the construction of the Taladanda canal bridge and a flyover near Link Road, progressing at snail's pace, traffic bottlenecks have hit the national highway that travels to Bhubaneswar and then moves on to Puri.

The situation has left administrative authorities worried as hassle-free travel to Puri is crucial for smooth conduct of Nabakalebar and rath yatra festivities.

The high-level traffic management committee, headed by police commissioner R.P. Sharma, has asked the authorities of Simplex, the firm running both the projects, to complete work at the earliest.

"The progress of the projects has been reviewed and the authorities have assured us that the projects will be completed by June 30," said deputy commissioner of police Sanjeev Arora.

However, sources said the projects are unlikely to meet the deadline. They had slowed down because of the heat-wave conditions during summer.

"Despite all odds, we hope to complete the pending works within the deadline, as over 80 per cent of the work for both the projects has already been done," said Simplex assistant general manager B.N. Acharya.

However, the traffic scenario at Madhupatna junction near Link Road has been badly affected due to the ongoing construction. The vehicles coming from Bhubaneswar and going towards Sikharpur are now being diverted through a service road up to OMP Square.

The temporary detour is in place following the demolition of the British-era Taladanda canal bridge after it was declared unsafe for vehicular movement in 2014.

Commuters alleged that traffic woes on the national highway were mainly caused by the closure of the Khannagar underpass for facilitating the construction of the third bridge over the Kathajodi river.

"The Khannagar underpass has been reopened and the traffic congestion at Press Chhak and Madhupatna will reduce as vehicles coming from Bhubaneswar can now enter the city through the underpass connecting the Ring Road," said assistant commissioner of police (traffic) P.K. Dalai.

Arora said the process of streamlining vehicular traffic on the entire 3km stretch from OMP Square to Kathajodi bridge has begun on an experimental basis ahead of the mega events.

As all the vehicular traffic from Jajpur, Choudwar and Jagatpur will be allowed to move towards the Puri bypass via Nayabazar, Sikharpur, OMP Square and Link Road, the entire stretch will be divided into several sectors for better traffic management.

Deployment of additional traffic personnel from Gopalpur to OMP Square via Press Chhak and Madhupatna has already started.