Cuttack: The civic administration has taken steps to identify suitable land for a modern abattoir for big animals here.

A civic official said scouting of land had begun at the tehsil level following orders from the collector last week.

Sub-collector Raguhuram Iyer said tehsildars of Salipur, Tangi, Athagarh and Barang tehsils, adjoining parts of the Cuttack Municipal Corporation, have been directed to identify land for the project.

"They have been given a month to identify suitable land," Iyer said.

"Construction of a modern abattoir is necessary to implement Orissa High Court's order to close the old slaughterhouse-cum-sale centre for big animals - kilkhana - in the heart of the city."

The high court had ordered the civic body to close the old slaughterhouse after receiving complaints of air and water pollution in the area that also houses an eye hospital apart from government offices and Barabati Stadium.

The Directorate of Technical Education and Training (DTET) adjacent to it had demanded immediate shifting of the slaughterhouse last September.

DTET director Balwant Singh had written to the municipal commissioner to shift the slaughterhouse as the foul smell from it had become unbearable and was causing inconvenience for officials and also polluting the area.

In January, people from different institutions and organisations located close to the slaughterhouse squatted on the roadside near Barabati Stadium for hours to demand its closure. They were peeved as repeated representations to the municipal administration had yielded no result.

The works department's roads and buildings division in Cuttack had declared the British era slaughterhouse unsafe a month later.

The civic body's budget for 2018-19 included sanctions for the new abattoir for the second consecutive year.

Municipal commissioner Bikash Ranjan Mohapatra said the slaughterhouse would be relocated once the new abattoir came up. "But construction can begin only after suitable land is found," Mohapatra said. "We have asked the district administration to provide the land."

The civic administration imposed a ban on slaughtering big animals at the slaughterhouse three years ago. Civic officials said big animals were not slaughtered at the old slaughterhouse, but at Odia Bazar, Baunsagali, Diwan Bazar and Mahamadia Bazar since the ban was imposed.

The beef is brought by trolley rickshaws to the slaughterhouse for sale. After the beef is sold, the bones are stored there for two to three weeks before being transported out, filling the air with foul smell, civic officials conceded.