BHUBANESWAR: Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan on Monday requested Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari for modification of route alignment of proposed ring road around the City.
Expressing his gratitude to Gadkari for according in-principle approval to the capital region ring road project around Bhubaneswar, Pradhan said the proposed alignment may create traffic congestions at Choudwar industrial town.
In a letter to Gadkari, Pradhan said during discussion on the project, some of the stakeholders expressed concern on the present alignment of the road.
The proposed alignment will
generate heavy traffic on a stretch of 12.9 km on NH-42 before joining the ring road. This will result in traffic congestion in and around Choudwar town and will prove to be a major bottleneck for the free flow of traffic, Pradhan said.
He urged Gadkari to ask the National Highway authorities to take up the issue with the State Public Works Department for necessary modification of the proposed alignment.
“The ring road should terminate on NH-5 (beyond Manguli junction) instead of NH-42 which is being proposed at present. This will facilitate smooth movement of vehicular traffic on both the stretches of NH-42 and NH-5,” he added.
The feasibility study for the road project was completed in 2011. The proposal was approved by the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) in January, 2015 after the State Government agreed to bear the cost of land acquisition for the project which will be 64-km long.