Bhubaneswar, May 4: The foundation stone laid by chief minister Naveen Patnaik for a check dam on the Koel river near Rourkela has of late reduced to only the pedestal with the plaque missing and the project mired in departmental surveys.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik laid the foundation stone of the project on July 9, 2013 to alleviate water woes of the residents of Koelnagar, Shaktinagar, part of the captive township of Rourkela and also those staying on the river bank. But, it has made little progress during these four years.

"I think the chief minister should not lay any foundation stone at least in Rourkela as all the projects are cursed and they never come up," said Kolenagar resident Albert Xaxa.

On the missing plaque, another local resident T.K. Swain said: "This shows the government's attitude towards projects in Rourkela."

Had the project been materialised, river water would have recharged the Deo, a subsidiary of the Koel. With the water getting checked at the proposed site near the intake well close to Koelnagar, the vegetable farmers would have got water stored round the year.<> This area is known as the vegetable basket of the district, stretching up to Nuagaon block.

The project, which had initially been conceptualised as a check dam, was subsequently changed to a weir bridge across the Koel near Jhirpani, around 1km upstream from the proposed site. Since a bridge came up upstream, the check dam project - to come up for Rs 250 crore - was shunned.

Now, surveys are going on at the second spot near Hamirpur, another 1km downstream. Executive engineer S.K. Pradhan said: "We have completed the drilling work and now doing other surveys at the basin and submergence area."

"We had to look for alternative site because of land acquisition issues. There will be any land acquisition problem at the second spot as here there are only government lands," he said.