Roadside parking creates traffic chaos at Master Canteen Square in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Feb. 23: The civic body, police and the development authority have together formed a sub-committee to look into the road and traffic problems in the city and take appropriate actions.

The comprehensive development committee related to road and traffic regulation has divided the city into 12 sectors and the members have started surveying the areas.

The committee would identify the problems and recommend it to the concerned departments for action.

Sources said that the committee included officials of the police, Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation, Bhubaneswar Development Authority, the general administration department, the public works department and Central Electricity Supply Utility.

A senior government official said the main aim of the committee would be to strengthen co-ordination among various government agencies and departments.

“Earlier, we were facing major problems to remove encroachments because of unavailability of forces. Besides, there was no co-ordination among various departments. As a result, development works got stalled,” said a senior official, hoping that the committee would now resolve these sticky issues.

In the first phase, the committee has surveyed Ram Mandir, Rajmahal, Kalpana Square and Bomikhal areas for traffic management.

Sumita Behera, assistant commissioner of the municipal corporation, who is also a member of the committee, said that in the first phase they had come across issues of rampant encroachmSents by hawkers, people parking on the roads and footpaths and several other bottlenecks. The committee would survey all the sectors of the city and recommend how various problems could be taken care of.

Reacting to the move, residents said that it would be a great thing to see clear roads..