Illegal structures near drainage channel No. 10 at Satya Nagar in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, May 9: New squatters quietly continue to encroach on the banks of drainage channel No. 10 at a time when Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) is blaming encroachments for impeding the proposed ambitious great lake zone project.

Though the project had been planned over two years ago by the BDA, no work has begun except for a few land surveys.

Around a month and a half ago, The Telegraph had carried a story on the delay in starting the project when BDA officials pointed that they had been facing difficulties in acquiring land on the banks of the channel.

However, over the past one month, several new slums have come up on the banks of this channel, which would cause more problems for the authorities in the future.

The development authority had planned to renovate the drainage channel and develop three lakes on its banks with modern recreation facilities. Three stretches along the lake are between the railway line and Janpath in Satya Nagar, between Janpath and Sachivalaya Marg in Unit –IX and between Sachivalaya Marg and Vidyut Marg at the BDA city centre.

These waterfronts would have beautiful landscaping, recreational facilities such as boating and shopping, jogging tracks, ornamental lights along with parking facilities and musical fountains.

BDA chief horticulturist Ashok N. Dhar said 26 acres had been identified along the drainage channel, which include both government and private land. But the development authority was more concerned about the government land that has been encroached upon.

“We had paid some people money, but they are yet to hand over the land,” said Dhar. He said that the land acquisition was the main problem there.

The new encroachments have started creating more problems for the agency. A survey conducted by the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) a few months ago found that around 400 houses that had encroached on government land there. The number has doubled over the past one month.

Most of these slums came up after the BMC election in January. The stretch between the railway line and Janpath, which will be developed as lake-1, has been affected more as several shanties have come up here. The situation is similar in the other stretches.

“Earlier, there was free space on the bank of the channel. Then some people started building their houses here and now the area is almost covered with such houses,” said Ratnakar Rout, a resident of Satya Nagar. He said that the illegal encroachment would cause floods when it rains.

However, BDA officials said no one had brought this matter to their knowledge. They also pointed out that removing encroachments was the BMC’s job.

BDA vice-chairman Krishan Kumar, who is also in-charge commissioner of BMC, said a committee had been set up to remove the new encroachments. “But we will see what can be done for those people who had encroached on the land earlier and accordingly they will be removed,” said Kumar.

He said that the lake zone project would take sometime to materialise as there are other projects that need attention at the earliest.