Bhubaneswar, May 2: The Inland Waterways Authority of India and the state government today decided to expedite work on the first phase of National Waterway No. 5 project from Pankapal near Kalinga Nagar up to Paradip and Dhamra ports.

Authority chairman Nutan Guha Biswas and chief secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi today jointly reviewed the progress.

On June 30, 2014, the waterways authority signed a pact with the government, Paradip Port Trust and Dhamra Port Company Limited to develop the first phase.The Telegraph had published a report "Waterway project flows on" on April 28 highlighting the hurdles in dredging work on the Kani river between Erada in Jajpur up to Padanipal in Kendrapara.

The pace of dredging work was slow in some patches because of local resistance. The local people were resisting the dredging work demanding compensation for their land being eaten up by the river and on the apprehension that the dredging would make it difficult for them to cross the river on foot along with their cattle.

During the review, the authority did not agree to pay compensation to them for the land loss as claimed by them. They said it was not legally acceptable for them to pay the relief. The state government authorities, on the other hand, agreed to consider the relief demand and directed the concerned officials to identify such land, official sources said.

Padhi asked the district collectors to undertake a survey of the villages along the river banks and identify the points that were generally used by the people for crossing the river. Biswas said the authority would provide all assistance to set up the ghats on those points for carrying forward the dredging work.

The issues related to dredging, dumping of the dredged materials, their transportation, repair and maintenance of the embankment roads, protection of river banks, preparation of tender documents, redesigning and development of the existing bridges on the waterway were discussed and resolved in the meeting.

It was revealed from the review that 11 bridges with less clearance than the required depth for plying of vessels needed modification or demolition for reconstruction.