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Badagada Brit Colony
The colony is the worst hit. Though work for laying sewer pipes is slated to end in mid-2014, at many places of the locality, work is yet to start. Ward councilor Ashok Singh says as work for laying sewer pipes is yet to be over, the Odisha Water Supply and Sewerage Board is unable to handover the road to the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation for repair.
While corporation takes care of the branch roads, major city roads are under the public works department (PWD). Work on the main road in the area near Badagada police station has started, but it is facing hurdles due to lack of progress in sewer work. The sewerage board needs to accelerate its job and handover the road to the agencies concerned for repair.
Tankapani Road
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Once a nightmare for local residents, the infamous Ravi Talkies-Sai Temple Road is now witnessing a change as sewer pipeline laying work is over. But road re-laying by the PWD is yet to gain pace.
PWD officials claim that shifting of utility service such as electricity poles is the reason for the delay in laying the road. They, however, say widening of the Ravi Talkies-Sai Temple Road will be on track after the rainy season.
As the corporation maintains the inner roads of the area, a bidding process has been initiated and work is already on in some areas. “Civic authorities should speed up their efforts to repair the roads as they are getting money from the sewerage board,” says Saroj Tripathy, a local resident.
Jharpada Jail road
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All major roads around the Special Jail in Jharpada are full of potholes, thanks to the delay in road repair work by the civic body. Sewerage board officials admitted that the area had a rocky terrain and made it difficult for them to lay the pipes. Once through with sewerage work, pits have been filled with sand and soil. But it's difficult to commute as rock pieces are still scattered on the roads.
Local residents have approached the civic authorities to repair the roads. “We have cleared all tenders and work will start shortly,” said a senior engineer of the civic body.
Baramunda
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Work for laying sewer pipes has been completed long back, but the corporation's delay in re-laying the roads has made life difficult for residents of this colony and its adjacent areas. The roads in front of the Census and Reserve Bank of India colonies and the Ruchika Market continue to lie in a miserable state.
While the sewerage board engineers said phase-I pipeline work was complete at Baramunda and phase-II will start, they made it clear that money had been given to the corporation for repair of the damaged roads. Local councilor Pratap Sahu, however, said the corporation was yet to get the money required for the repair work.
Saheed Nagar
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This upmarket area is till suffering from bad roads in many of its localities. Roads damaged to lay sewer pipes are yet to be repaired. On September 7, 2011 a road in front of the house of Ashok Sahu, a professor of the Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology, caved in as the sand filling had not been done properly.
Councillor Padmanabh Dash said: “Work orders are yet to be issued for repairing the roads and this was the reason for the delay.” Prasad Dash, an environmental activist working in his office in Saheed Nagar, said: “Some roads in the area are extra smooth and wide but many parts still survive in the dark age. The disparity should be removed.”
Different tales
We have floated tenders for almost all roads damaged by sewer work and the job is on in some areas. Work will be taken up on the remaining roads shortly
Ananta Narayan Jena, mayor
We have given Rs 28.33 crore to the corporation and Rs 7 crore to the PWD for repair of damaged roads. The state government has already given another Rs 10 crore to the corporation, so they should plan their road repair
BK Parida, senior project engineer, Odisha Water Supply and Sewerage Board
We have started work on a major road in Badagada Brit Colony and also on the Ravi-Talkies-Sai Temple stretch. Delay in the execution of sewerage work and shifting of utility services affected our work. Abrupt digging of roads by the sewerage board also hampered repair
Bijan Behera, chief engineer (roads), PWD
