ROURKELA: Amid intense pressure, ground works have started for upgradation of National Highway (NH)-143, but all eyes are on the neglected NH-520 (old NH 215) lying in pathetic condition in Bonai sub-division of Sundargarh district.
After inordinate delay, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has prepared cost estimates to upgrade NH-520 from Rimuli to Rajamunda on EPC (Engineering, Procurement, Construction) mode. Around `1,688 crore has been estimated to upgrade the NH-520 in two packages.
Sources said demanding improvement of the NH-520, members of CPM, led by its Bonai MLA Laxman Munda, on August 31 had launched indefinite economic blockade, but called off the agitation on the second day.
CPM’s Sundargarh district secretariat member Banamali Dhupal claimed that during negotiation, the NHAI had assured to float tenders for the first phase work from Rimuli to Koida section by September-end and the second phase from Koida to Rajamunda by first week of October, but there has been no progress. He said NHAI’s assurance to make the highly damaged NH stretch motorable by December is also moving at a snail’s pace.
Dhupal said repair work on 4 km stretch from Gopana to Bimlagarh is also going on at a slow pace. Recently, deep craters on about 15 km stretch from Sulumbera to Kalta were packed with stone crusher dusts and slag without lasting impact due to rain.
Thousands of heavy mineral carrying vehicles pass through the stretch from Roxy, Bimlagarh, Patasahi and Renjda railway sidings and various mines in Koida block. The rest of the NH-520 is also in pathetic condition. The CPM would resort to agitation by end of October to highlight the problem, he added.
A senior NHAI official, requesting anonymity, said it has been finalised to lay bitumen road of about 46 km from Rimuli (in Keonjhar district) to Koida (in Sundargarh) at a cost of about `668 crore. The other section of 54 km from Koida to Rajamunda in Sundargarh would be cement concrete road with an estimated cost of `1,020 crore, he said and added that tenders for both the works would be floated shortly.
In July 2011, Odisha Steel Expressway Pvt Ltd, a Special Purpose Vehicle of MBL-SREI, had started work to upgrade the NH-520 stretch at a cost of `707 crore on Build, Operate, Transfer (BOT) mode. But with hardly 10 per cent progress, the NHAI had terminated the agreement with MBL-SREI.
Both NH-143 and 520 run through parliamentary constituency of Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram.
