Cuttack: Parking of seized vehicles has become a cause of concern for both cops and commuters plying through Badambadi Traffic Square.

As Badambadi police station, functioning in a building on less than 1,500sqft for nearly seven years, the problem literally spills onto the road adjacent to the facility.

"Parking of police vehicles is a problem here as the police station is located on the roadside without any boundary wall in such a busy area. As there is no space, the seized vehicles have to be parked on the roadside outside the station," a police official said.

However, the problem cannot be addressed as the commissionerate is still struggling to get adequate space to house the facility.

Badambadi resident Prafulla Mohanty said: "The unattended problem calls for urgent attention as parking of seized vehicles outside the police station for days together is posing hindrance for the movement of traffic on a major thoroughfare."

The commissionerate had, in 2015, planned a new building for Badambadi police station. Sources said that though land identified in the adjoining bus terminus of the Odisha State Road Transport Corporation had been allotted in the same year, it was yet to be taken over. Funds of Rs 60 lakh sanctioned for the purpose of construction of the new police station building are also lying unspent.

Deputy commissioner of police Akhileswar Singh on Friday said that the problem was centred on the land size. "The 2,000sqft area is too inadequate to construct a new building. The concerned authorities have since been urged, thrice in the past one year, to provide a bigger land. But, the requests have yielded no result," Singh said.

Singh said: "At least 6,000sqft is required to have the necessary space for parking of police vehicles and the seized ones after construction of the police station building."

A transport body official said nothing much could be done on the police request as more land - in addition to the allotted 2,000sqft - at the identified site was not available for being spared for such facility.

Badambadi police station was constituted after bifurcation of the Madhupatna police station area as part of the reorganisation process of the Cuttack Urban Police District.

The police station, inaugurated on December 1, 2010 with jurisdiction spread over 4sqkm and a population of around 1.2 lakh, has one inspector, two sub-inspectors, two assistant sub-inspectors, two havildars, eleven constables and one driver.

The police station has under its limits places such as the Badambadi bus terminus, Bharatia Tower, Panchamukhi Hanuman Temple, Telephone Bhavan and a police outpost at Shankarpur.