ROURKELA: Even as the land acquisition process for widening of the newly-declared National highway (NH) 320D is underway, the Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) refuses to part with its Ring Road for the project, disturbing the most feasible alignment through the Steel City.
Sources said, after the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) in March 2022 sanctioned Rs 209.92 crore for development of 36 km of the NH 320D from Jareikela to Hockey Square in Sundargarh district, tender was floated in August to two-lane 24 km from Jareikela to Diesel Colony of Bondamunda with paved shoulders for Rs 159 crore.
The office of the Panposh Sub-Collector and Competent Authority for Land Acquisition (CALA) has initiated process for acquiring required land for widening the highway by 30 km from Jareikela to Bisra Square, where the new highway meets RSP’s Ring Road.
The administration needs to acquire about 138 acre private land between Jareikela and Diesel Colony and six km between Diesel Colony and Bisra Square from the South Eastern Railway (SER) for the purpose.
“The administration issued a public notice asking private land owners to submit their claims with relevant documents three days back but I have no knowledge about the objection of RSP over plan for merger of four km of its Ring Road into the NH 320D,” said Panposh Sub-Collector Abhimanyu Majhi adding, the issue would be considered later when that stretch comes up for development.
An RSP spokesperson confirmed that the management has already put up its reservation with the administration and the NHD, pointing that the addition of the Ring Road in the project would immensely hamper movement of heavy vehicles and affect the safety of RSP employees, workers and general public. The smooth traffic flow to RSP and accident risk of the employees would increase manifold during duty hours, he added. Contacted, NHD Executive engineer (EE) Arun Pandey however, refused to comment on the matter.