Damaged portions of the bridge over the Brahmani river at Panposh. The bridge connects Rourkela with the rest of the state. Pictures by Uttam Kumar Pal

Rourkela, Sept. 12: The pathetic condition of the bridge over Brahmani has fuelled the demand for a new one.

Members of the Rourkela Development Steering Committee are spearheading the demand for immediate construction of a second bridge on Brahmani as the existing one has weakened due to load of heavy traffic.

The bridge, constructed in the early 1950s, connects the steel city with the rest of the state.

The steering committee has urged the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to upgrade the NH-143 (earlier NH-23) between Birmitrapur and Rajamunda and NH-215 between Rajamunda and Barkote. The Brahmani bridge is part of NH-143.

Subrata Patnaik, convener of the steering committee, said: “The four-laning work from Birmitrapur to Rajamunda covering 76km and two-laning from Rajamunda to Barkote covering 50km, including construction of the two-lane bridge over Brahmani, was awarded to agencies by the NHAI, but the delay in land acquisition has become the major stumbling block.”

A damaged portion of the bridge’s wall

The total cost for both the projects is Rs 862 core and it will be on build operate and transfer basis. Toll will be collected later. According to the agreement, before the work starts, the contractor must have in possession 80 per cent of the land required for the NHAI road expansion project.

In the last week of August, a delegation of the steering committee went to New Delhi to meet road transport and highways minister Oscar Fernandes. The minister told the delegation that though the agreement had been signed on May 31 last year, work was yet to start due to land acquisition issues and delay in getting green clearance from the ministry of environment and forests.

Additional district magistrate, Rourkela, R.N. Mishra, however, told The Telegraph: “We are doing our best to complete the land acquisition process. Yesterday, we got a list from the Centre to notify land acquisition in more than 50 villages. We will finish the task very soon.’’

The steering committee convener urged the state government to expedite the land acquisition process.

In another development, the government has cleared the Rs 1,292crore Sambalpur-Rourkela four-laning road project.