ROURKELA: Even as Rourkela Smart City Limited (RSCL) is spending huge sum of money on parking infrastructure to prevent traffic snarls on the highly congested Rourkela main road, the proposal in 2015 to widen 10 connecting roads to help divert traffic to parallel Mahtab Road is gathering dust. This has raised apprehensions on efficacious use of the upcoming parking infrastructure.
Sources said the portion of the main road from Bisra Square to Mangal Bhawan point is worst affected due to encroachment by retail and wholesale shops. During business hours, traffic on the stretch crawls at a snail’s pace with almost 60 percent of the carriageway remaining occupied with parked vehicles and vending carts.
To add to the crisis the connecting roads to Mahtab Road also remain choked. The majority of these roads have narrowed down to merely five to six feet due to encroachment on the Mahtab Road end. The RSCL is developing three surface parking spaces along Mahatab Road with a proposal to develop the main road as ‘non-motorised traffic road’. The move may not yield the desired results as the upcoming parking lots are quite far from the commercial establishments. The under-construction multi-level car parking is being constructed at the cost of around `40 crore, but its location away from the busy spots may not serve its purpose.
Former chairman of erstwhile Rourkela Municipality Ramesh Chandra Bal said three decades back, Mahtab Road was constructed to divert traffic from the main road. But it remains virtually defunct due to encroachment. Widening of the connecting roads is a must to address traffic problems on the city’s busiest pockets, he emphasised.
Sources said the Sundargarh district administration and the Rourkela Municipal Corporation (RMC) are not keen on widening the connecting roads apprehending widespread resistance. RMC Commissioner and RSCL CEO Dibyajyoti Parida said there is no plan for widening of connecting roads as of now. He said adequate infrastructure is being developed to reduce traffic and parking problems in the city.
