BHUBANESWAR: In a fresh push to the parallel road project on Jayadev Vihar-Nandankanan stretch of the State Capital, the Forest department has given nod for diversion of forest land on a 1.7 km stretch. Officials of Forest and Environment department said the department has given nod for diversion of 10.18 hectare (around 25 acre land) of the Chandaka Wildlife Division following identification of a similar patch of land for compensatory afforestation.
“A patch of land near Tulasadeipur under Bhubaneswar tehsil of Khurda was earmarked and transferred in favour of the Forest department in August this year after declaring it as Tulasadeipur protected forest for compensatory afforestation. The land patch is 10.37 hectare in size,” said a forest official from Chandaka.
He said the patch has been identified in lieu of land diversion for a 200 feet wide road over a length of 1.790 km from Rail Vihar to Hatiasuni-Ekamrakanan park for the left parallel road also known as ‘Left Side Road Network’. Sources said the Roads and Buildings division of the government had sought permission for diversion of land for the project back in March, 2018.
The parallel road project is being executed by the R&B division and Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA). It envisages developing two roads parallel to the existing stretch from Jayadev Vihar to Nandankandan for decongestion of traffic.
The left parallel road from Xavier Square will be connected to Chandaka Square via Patharagadia and the Institute of Mathematics. The 13 km road, estimated to cost around Rs 92 crore is being constructed in seven stretches. Work on one of the stretches has already been completed and the remaining are in progress.
Similarly, the 6.25 km right parallel road from Acharya Vihar to Patia Big Bazaar, is proposed to be constructed at a cost of Rs 239 crore. Both the projects are moving at a snail’s pace owing to a host of problems including land acquisition, forest diversion and other issues. BDA secretary Kabindra Kumar Sahoo said efforts are on to clear land hurdles to complete the right side road at the earliest.