JAGATSINGHPUR: It has been more than two years since construction on the new driving test and vehicle inspection centre at Raghunathpur tehsil has been completed but it is yet to become functional. Though the tracks are ready, the centre has been found to have technical flaws making it unfit for use. Water logging in the field also makes it unfit for tests.
This has led to too much pressure on regional transport office (RTO) at Dedhasardeuli under Jagatsinghpur tehsil. Besides traffic snarls on the one-km narrow stretch of road till Govindapokhari have become a reason of botheration.
Driving test of two and four-wheelers along with inspection takes place at a temporary field near the office. Vehicles remain parked on both sides of the road, inconveniencing commuters using that stretch. Residents of the area have threatened to take the matter to the higher authorities and sit on dharna if the problem is not resolved at the earliest.
To address these issues, in 2018, administration had allotted one acre land at Rahadinga village under Raghunathpur tehsil for setting up a driving test and inspection centre. Transport department had sanctioned Rs 1.51 crore and directed the Rural Development (RD) department to float tenders for the same.
Construction work was started by a private contractor in the same year and completed by September 26, 2019. However, it has not been operational even now.
After a recent inspection by transport officials, the RD department was directed to rectify some technical flaws found in the centre and hand it over to the Transport department. Bills raised by the contractor have also been sanctioned to carry out the repair work as soon as possible. “Repairs in the construction of culverts and tracks for testing of vehicles have to be carried out for which I had sought the intervention of the RD department before handover of the centre,” said Pratap Kishore Panda, regional transport officer.
Anant Kumar Satpathy, executive engineer of RD department, said that some bills of the contractor are yet to be passed and once that’s done, work will be completed soon.