Cuttack: The traffic management committee formed by Orissa High Court for the city has decided to execute an SCB Medical College Hospital thoroughfare plan, a move officials say will address the problem of traffic congestion on the campus.

The plan, however, puts a halt to the free-for-all access to the campus through the two main entrances to the campus.

The thoroughfare plan includes opening of a second entrance gate on the western side to create another thoroughfare to the eastern side of the hospital.

A sub-committee, which was formed to assess the overcrowding, attributed it to unrestricted traffic inside the hospital between the two entry points, which connect Manglabag on the western side with Ranihat on the eastern side.

In its report, the sub-committee said closing the functional thoroughfare had become imperative because of the traffic causing inconvenience to transport the patients. The police commissioner heads the committee.

Deputy commissioner of police Akhileswar Singh said on Saturday the committee had decided to make the entire stretch of road connecting the two main gates out of bounds for vehicles, except ambulances, casualty vehicles and those carrying emergency patients.

"Accordingly, a second entrance gate would be opened on the western boundary wall near the Acharya Harihar Regional Cancer Centre by using an existing road that can connect it with the eastern gate on Ranihat," Singh said.

The nearly 1km stretch is used by most people to travel from Manglabag to Ranihat and vice-versa. As a result, vehicular traffic creates problems, especially for the vehicles engaged in the transportation of patients.

Major departments, including trauma and casualty, medicine, surgery, eye departments, are located on both sides of the main road on the campus. "Stoppage of the thoroughfare has been a long-pending issue, and the move to make it a no-vehicle zone is expected to solve the traffic chaos on the campus," said advocate Pravat Ranjan Dash, a committee member.