Bhubaneswar: To ensure the safety of citizens, the public works department has decided to undertake a survey of all major and minor roads in the city to locate illegal median cuts made illegally for traffic flow.

Once the survey is done, the department will make efforts to plug these median cuts and if further violations were noticed, police would be asked to take action against violators.

The decision was taken at a high-level meeting on road safety earlier this month. Chief secretary A.P. Padhi had chaired the meeting in which several executive engineers of the works department and home department officials also took part.

"We observed that several illegal median cuts exist on city roads. These cuts hamper traffic flow and lead to vehicular conflicts that often end in road accidents. The executive engineers have been asked to spot these cuts and take necessary action to plug them," said chief engineer (roads) Om Prakash Patel.

As vehicles emerge through these cuts, they create a chaos and at times triggers major and minor accidents. Major median cuts along the national highway have put at risk the lives of commuters. Bikers and cyclists mostly use the smaller ones Delta Square, Siripur Square and Airport Square to make it to the other side.

"Cuts between the medians are important for vehicles to move from one side of the road to the other, but there should be a plan in it. Several such medians cuts on various roads make commuting difficult for us as well as chaotic," said Chinmay Jena, a commuter.

As part of the latest plan, the executive engineers from road and building division of the works department will spot the illegal median cuts and submit an action taken report before January 30.

"All these illegal median cuts will be sealed by the end of this month," said an official of the works department.

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