Cuttack: The plan to create an alternative thoroughfare on the SCB Medical College and Hospital campus to deal with the severe traffic congestion has not seen any progress in last six months.

The traffic management committee for Cuttack city, formed by Orissa High Court, had come up with the thoroughfare plan in its monthly meeting in November last year. It was planned at the meeting that the entrances to the main road on the campus - which connects Mangalabag on the western side with Ranihaat on the eastern side and which is used by all city commuters - would be closed to ensure that outsiders do not enjoy access to it.

The committed instead planned creation of another thoroughfare on the eastern side of the main entrance of the hospital by opening of a second entrance gate on the western side.

The execution of the plan was reviewed at the committee's latest monthly meeting on Wednesday, where it was found that no progress had been made on the plan so far.

"The SCB authority has been advised to open the second gate for use of general public to avoid traffic congestion and illegal parking on the campus," said committee's member and assistant commissioner of police (traffic) Pradip Kumar Dalai.

The TMC wanted to make the entire stretch of road connecting the two main gates out of bounds for vehicles, except ambulances, casualty vehicles and those carrying emergency patients. To implement it, a second entrance gate has to be opened on the western boundary wall and a new thoroughfare connecting it with the eastern gate on Ranihat side has to be constructed.

Hospital superintendent P.K. Debata, who took charge only last week, said: "I will look into what has been done on the proposal and decision will follow accordingly."

Another SCB official, who did not want to be named, said that the hospital had not made any progress on the proposal except for holding a couple of meetings. The official conceded that the nearly one-km stretch of thoroughfare is used by most people to travel from Mang-labag to Ranihat and vice-versa to avoid rush and congestion on the main road outside the hospital. As a result, huge vehicular pressure creates traffic congestions, especially for emergency vehicles that are engaged in the transportation of patients from one department to the other.

Major departments - including trauma and casualty, medicine and surgery - are located on both sides of the main road on the campus.

Earlier, a sub-committee formed to assess the traffic congestion had attributed it to unrestricted traffic on the road inside the hospital between the two entrance gates.

In its report, the sub-committee had said that stopping of the thoroughfare for outsiders had become imperative as the unrestricted traffic between both the gates, causing inconvenience for transportation of the patients.