Bhutapada-Sunapali road, one of major transport routes in Sambalpur town, has been neglected to the point of being unusable. Though the authorities have sanctioned funds and floated tenders, no contractor is interested in taking up repair work of the road that is replete with potholes.
The road was handed over to Roads & Building Department on June 3 by the Municipality for maintenance works. Even though the Department floated a tender within a week inviting contractors for relaying of the road, not a single bidder has evinced interest till date.
The 2.6-km road connects the town with NH-6 at Dhankauda and its repair is estimated to cost `2.94 crore. When the road was under jurisdiction of Sambalpur Municipality earlier, it had not been repaired despite regular complaints by the locals. As commuters face inconvenience due to bad condition of the road, which worsens during monsoon, the locals had earlier resorted to road blockade over the issue several times in the past but to no avail.
Several important institutions including Government Women’s College, Veer Surendra Sai Stadium, SP Vigilance office, Sambalpur division and VSS Institute of Science are situated along the road.
Assistant Executive Engineer of R&B PK Nath said this is not the first instance of work getting delayed due to unavailability of contractors. Admitting that Bhutapada-Sunapali road has been neglected for a long time, he said tender will be floated again inviting bidders for the second time.