Construction work at the Sundarpada-Harirajpur road in progress. The road will help the residents of apartment blocks coming up in and around the area to commute. Telegraph pictures

Bhubaneswar, April 7: A new road project in Bhubaneswar is expected to relieve traffic congestion to a huge extent on National Highway (NH) – 5.

The upcoming road will link the capital city with the township of Jatni. At present, people travelling from Bhubaneswar to Jatni have to take the NH-5.

Construction on the 14.2km Sundarpada-Harirajpur road is going on at full speed. Work on the project, estimated to cost around Rs 7.53 crore, is expected to be complete by the end of this month. The road was a long-standing demand of the people as the Sundarpada-Jatni stretch has seen rapid growth in the past few months with a number of housing colonies coming up in the area.

While more than 30 apartments have been build near Sundarpada, two engineering colleges and four management colleges also come up in the area.

The project, which started on January 31, 2010, was supposed to be completed by January 30 this year. However, due to problems, including law and order issues, created by villagers in the locality, the work got delayed.

Harihar Sahu, executive engineer, Bhubaneswar Rural Works Division, said: “The entire funding came from the National Rural Roads Development Agency and the guidelines were followed as per the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY).

Although the PMGSY guidelines limit the width of the road to 12 foot, this will be an 18-foot road, as the state government took it up as a special case. Another specialty of the road is that it will have a three-inch black top (mixture of coal tar and gravels) though PMGSY normally allows only a layer of one inch. Apart from the black top layering, three sections of the road will have concrete blocks with cement layering.”

People near the bazaar areas demanded that cement be used for longevity. This should not pose a problem to the authorities as PMGSY guidelines contain provisions for laying cement concrete roads.

“But laying the cement concrete segments for the road was a difficult task. We had to leave the structure for watering for 28 days for the concrete to become stable. For that, one side of the road had to be closed. People living nearby protested and we had to calm them and also manage the traffic. These problems also caused some delay in completing the work on time,” said Sahu.

Earlier, the road was full of potholes and the commuters used to face many difficulties, but now when the road gets completed, the stretch will become one of the best communicating links and also a major contributor to the development of the region.

“Seeing the increase in the flow of traffic we have decided that once the roadwork is over we will request the public works department (PWD) to convert it into a four-lane road in future,” added Sahu.

“Under the PMGSY guidelines land cannot be acquired for roadwork. So, for the four-laning PWD can widen the stretch appropriately. We also have made some minor modifications to the two existing bridges though there was no provision for the same. Once it goes to PWD, they can also take up the construction of new bridges as required,” said a senior official of rural works division.

However, residents of Sundarpada are sceptical of the work finishing by the end of this month. “We hope the engineers stick to their new deadline of April 30,” said one of the residents.

Officials of the Rural Works Division said that none of the roads constructed under the PMGSY scheme were laid with the help of ‘pavers’ (road laying machines). “But to make it stronger, people-friendly and long-lasting we have, used pavers for the first time on a PMGSY road in the state,” said Sahu.

“Once the roadwork is over, people living in the localities of Sundarpada, Bhimatangi and Kapilaprasad area will have better connectivity,” said Chhabindra Jena, councillor of ward No. 58.