The muddy Kedar-Gouri Road following sewer work at Old Town. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 5: Members of the Ekamra Vikash Manch yesterday hit the streets near Kedar-Gouri Road protesting against the authorities’ neglect of the Ekamra area consisting of Old Town, Bhimatangi, Dumuduma, Jagamara, Jadupur, Sundarpada, Kapilaprasad and Siripur.

In January last week, the Manch members gheraoed the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation office to press for their demands.

Most of the roads in the Old Town area have been under construction for long. Even several stretches near the tourist destinations have been affected by the sewerage pipe-laying work. “The roads near the heritage monuments remain dangerously exposed with pits. The local people cannot bring out their vehicles. Commuters find the stretches inconvenient to travel through,” said Manch convenor Rashmi Mohapatra.

“After much hullabaloo, the sewerage work on Kedar-Gouri Road is over. However, come a little shower and the stretch gets worsen,” she said.

Manch adviser Saroj Mishra alleged that the construction work on the NH-203 along the Samantarapur stretch was going very slow and the local residents as well as the commuters, especially from Puri, were facing difficulties to travel through it.

However, senior officers of the Orissa Water Supply and Sewerage Board clarified that the sewerage pipe-laying work started in October last year. “On most of the stretch, the work has to be stopped as the Old Town area is dotted with many Shiva temples and there are rituals almost every month. On major religious occasions, the local residents used to come and request to stop work for some days and ultimately the work got delayed. However, we will complete it very soon,” said a senior project engineer of the board.

“Water supply in many colonies at Ekamra Kshetra depends on the open wells. Though some people are drawing ground water through bore wells, the open wells are still in use by the urban poor,” said the convenor.

Former minister Suresh Kumar Routray demanded immediate supply of drinking water for the areas from Dumduma to all parts of Old Town. He also said that the Municipal Corporation Hospital, catering to the healthcare needs of more than 3,00,000 people, lacked the life-saving equipment and many were lying defunct.