BHUBANESWAR: The sluggishness of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) in taking up evictions on time has emerged as a major hurdle in carrying out the beautification project planned by the two agencies for the city ahead of the hockey World Cup. The joint enforcement team of the agencies that have launched a massive eviction drive to clear roadside encroachments have raged at least 450 temporary sheds, cabins and kiosks in the last 48 hours.
However, with less than a month left for the World Cup event, the overtime work seems to be too late. The encroachment menace continues to remain a major challenge in carrying out the road beautification and streets capping work on the identified stretches of NH-16 as well as other major roads within the priority network around Kalinga Stadium. The BLUIS (Bhubaneswar Land Use Intelligence System) developed for safeguarding government lands in the capital city by leveraging space technologies and geo-informatics also seems to have not proven much effective as enforcement officials admit that a sizeable number of kiosks still exist on encroached lands.
BDA officials, meanwhile, said the special eviction drive will be intensified further this month to raze the illegal structures that have come up on unauthorisedly on government lands along major roads and streets. They said apart from removing the illegal structures, crackdown has also been launched to remove illegal hoardings, banners and posters in the city. Around Rs 50,000 fine has been imposed on violators during the enforcement drive in the last two days, they said.