Cuttack, Feb. 14: The Taladanda bridge is been broken down and till a new one comes up the police have chalked out a plan for better traffic management on National Highway-5 that links Calcutta to Chennai.

This move of the police comes following failure to streamline vehicular movement in the wake of demolition of the old Taladanda bridge.

A senior police officer said a temporary traffic post would be set up near the circular crossing at OMP Square — the prominent junction — on the NH-5.

There is utter chaos near the circular crossing of OMP Square, where vehicles converge from College Square, Malgodown and Naya Bazaar sides.

This apart, vehicles from Madhupatna and Samrat Talkies area also converge at the crossing through a new service road created over the Taladanda canal.

“A traffic post will shortly be created near the circular crossing to facilitate smooth vehicular movement keeping in view the rush on the NH-5 following the demolition of the old Taladanda bridge,” said assistant commissioner of police (traffic) Pramod Rath.

Rath added that steps had been taken to ensure that commuters move towards Bhubaneswar from OMP Square without being stuck near Madhupatna.

“Complete chaos rules Madhupatna during peak traffic hours because of the ongoing highway expansion work. Vehicles move there at a snail’s pace, causing severe inconvenience to commuters. Sometimes, it takes more than an hour to travel from Madhupatna to the Mahanadi river bridge,” said Sudhanshu Das, a commuter.

Das further said that better traffic management at Madhupatna junction was the need of the hour as it was the converging point for vehicles from the city and the Chennai-Calcutta expressway.

According to the proposals, the existing service road in front of Agarwal Eye Hospital will be developed to ensure that Bhubaneswar-bound vehicles do not face any difficulty in moving from OMP Square side.

“Work for widening of the service road has begun. We hope to complete the necessary construction to regulate traffic at Madhupatna within 10 days. This will ease vehicular congestion at Madhupatna as well as on Link Road,” Rath added.

Work for the demolition of the British-era Taladanda canal bridge has already begun, while most vehicles on NH-5 are being diverted to the two service roads.

The old Taladanda bridge was earlier declared unsafe after a joint inspection by district administration, the police, the National Highways Authority of India and the Cuttack Municipal Corporation. A new bridge will be constructed within six months after the demolition of the old bridge by engineers of Shree Jagannath Expressways Private Limited.

The police have also deployed more than 20 officials to regulate traffic on the entire stretch from Madhupatna to OMP Square.