BHUBANESWAR: The Left Parallel Road (LPR), a part of the long-awaited Jayadev Vihar-Nandankanan decongestion plan in the state capital, will be opened for public by April 30, Works minister Prithiviraj Harichandan said on Tuesday.
Harichandan reviewed the progress of the project at the site near Salia Sahi and said he has directed the department officials to complete the construction work at the earliest and open it for public by April-end.
“The LPR will be a major artery to solve the prevailing traffic problem in the city and make the movement of people easier and smoother. The project will make road communication easy in the CRPF Chowk, Utkal Hospital, Infosys and KIIT areas,” he said.
Chief engineer (roads) Dhyan Chand Nayak, chief construction engineer Manoj Mahanand and other officials from the Works and Urban Development departments attended the project review.
The 13-km-long project connecting CRP Square with Nandankanan had been moving at a snail’s pace for nearly a decade owing to hurdles in land acquisition.
While a major part of the roadwork was completed years back, the one-km stretch near Salia Sahi remained stalled owing to delay in land acquisition and removal of encroachments. Work was expedited after the government and Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) authorities carried out a large-scale eviction drive, demolishing 556 houses from the slum.
Apart from LPR, the government has now sped up measures for completion of the Right Parallel Road (RPR) project, being executed by the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA). Of the 6.5-km stretch connecting the New Government Colony road to Kalarahanga Square, road connectivity in around 4-km stretch has been completed. However, the remaining 2.5-km portion between Guru Kelucharan Park and Patia railway station has not seen any progress owing to land acquisition hurdles.
The BDA is now planning to acquire land in three mouzas - Gadakana, Patia and Chandrasekharpur - to complete the project.