ROURKELA: As the FIH Men’s Hockey World Cup 2023 inches closer, the rush to complete related projects, most of which are pending, has raised doubts over the quality of work being undertaken. Besides the tardy progress has raised concerns about meeting the deadline ahead of the signature event.
Rourkela will co-host the mega sporting event with Bhubaneswar from January 13 to 29, 2023 at the under-construction Birsa Munda Hockey Stadium which is in an advanced stage of completion. Reliable sources said most other infrastructure and beautification projects of Rourkela Smart City Ltd (RSCL) and a few other agencies were to be completed by the revised target of March and given an extension till June.
But, all the projects continue to drag due to the irregular and slow pace of work.
The authorities concerned are now blaming the rains for the delay. The combined cost of the ongoing RSCL projects alone is over Rs 800 crore. The RSCL has discreetly pushed the completion deadlines of the projects to November.
It is learnt, the mega Rourkela-1 project comprising the command and control centre, auditorium, tribal museum and commercial and office space seems unlikely to be completed soon. Similar is the plight of the project for the redevelopment of the Panposh market complex.
Work on the Smart Road Phase-1 project, which was left midway a year back, resumed recently. The present status of the Smart Road Phase-2 project for the development of 22 km of 28 important roads shows the pathetic state of affairs of projects being implemented in the city.
Work for developing the DAV pond into a recreational facility that started long back is getting dragged along with the beautification and landscaping of ring road and other roads, said sources. Work on tiled pavements is also getting done in an irregular and clumsy manner.
This apart, the construction of 11 stormwater drains for a whopping Rs 110 crore is nearing completion except for a few patches where work has not yet started due to land issues. Work on the under-construction planetarium of the Science and Technology Department and an adjacent science park of the RSCL too are progressing slowly. The city administration continues to grapple to procure unused government land to construct vehicle parking spaces on the congested Rourkela main road.
Rourkela ADM and RSCL CEO Subhankar Mohapatra recently reiterated all projects would be completed before the World Cup. Former MLA Pravat Mohapatra said the corrupt BJD government and lack of monitoring of work being undertaken by contractors are responsible for the projects lying incomplete.