ROURKELA: FOR last eight years, the campus of state government-run Utkalmani Gopabandhu Institute of Engineering (UGIE), a diploma engineering college at Jail Road in Rourkela, has been facing intrusion, dust and noise pollution as local authorities have look away.
The reason for the mess is a concrete batch mix plant that is operated unauthorisedly from within the campus by various construction firms much to the anguish of UGIE employees and students including hostel inmates, both boys and girls.
Amid growing resentment, UGIE principal Pragati Das recently sought the help of the RN Pali police to address the issue. Reliable sources said the plant has encroached the southern side of the campus. It was made operational in 2016 by Brahmani Engicon Pvt Ltd (BEPL) for construction of a road over bridge (ROB) over STI level-crossing before Jagannath Traders took over the project.
Social activist Biren Senapati said after completion of the ROB project in February 2019, the BEPL continued with the illegal occupation till early 2020 when public protest forced it to leave. Later Jagannath Traders took possession of the site in late 2020 with the tacit support of the city administration for supplying material for construction of the Birsa Munda Hockey International Stadium at Chhend Colony.
Senapati said the stadium was inaugurated in January, 2023 but the plant continues to operate and is supplying materials to various government and private projects. He said several truckloads of stone chips, sand and other construction materials ply from the site. Additionally, some temporary godowns and quarters for workers have been constructed, he said, adding seven months back an illegal scrap godown at the site was demolished by the Rourkela Municipal Corporation (RMC) after stolen properties of the civic body were found stored in it.
Das said the institute’s authorities have been appealing to put an end to the menace but in vain. She said the plant has contributed to dust and noise pollution in the campus and if this is not enough, materials are carried by over 15 trucks daily from the site.
She said the campus is also intruded upon by outsiders. The principal said workers of the plant on Thursday protested when the Works department tried to erect a boundary wall by refilling trenches prompting her to file a police complaint.
She said after police intervention the plant operators were given one month time to vacate the site.