BHUBANESWAR: Blame game over the delay in the national highway no-55 work continued with the BJD on Sunday targeting Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for the slow pace of the project which has been lagging since last seven years.
The NH-55 which connects Cuttack with Sambalpur is considered to be a lifeline for Odisha but now has turned out to be the most dangerous road in the country, BJD spokesperson Goutambuddha Das told mediapersons.Das alleged that due to the continuing expansion work, the highway has turned into a death trap.
“According to the NHAI, the expansion and extension of the NH-55 has been going on for the last seven years, but its completion is nowhere in sight,” he said and added, “If accidents on this road are taken into consideration, at least two lives are lost and 10 to 15 people injured on a daily basis.”sThe BJD leader stated that though Pradhan hails from Angul district, he has never raised the issue nor taken any corrective action. “People will give a befitting reply to the Centre for its inaction in this regard,” he stated.
Countering the BJD allegations, BJP stated that work has slowed down due to land acquisition problems at several places. BJP spokesperson Jatin Mohanty said the state government is responsible for land acquisition and delay of the project is unnecessarily being attributed to the NHAI and the Centre.