ROURKELA: Villagers of Kuanrmunda and Nuagaon blocks in tribal-dominated Sundargarh district continue to face difficulties due to the delay in construction of Lahanda-Mitkundri bridge over Deo river.Criticising the administration for the delay, Birmitrapur MLA Shankar Oram said despite repeated reminders, the land acquisition process is moving at a snail’s pace.“Due to the monsoon season, water level of Deo river has increased. The poor villagers have no option but to take the risk of wading across the river to find the shortest distance to Rourkela,” he alleged.
The Rural Development (RD) department started construction of the bridge in mid-2018 at a cost of around Rs 7 crore. As small patches of land were required for the project, the bridge construction work was taken up with the assumption that land issues would be sorted out amicably. However, things went awry when land losers physically stopped construction work some 20 months back on Lahanda side. But the administration showed no urgency as notification for social impact assessment (SIA) study was issued on June 6, 2022 with a target to disburse compensation by August. Accordingly, the target for project completion was set for February 2023, but was missed.
Executive engineer of RD department Kishore Chandra Khatua said the land acquisition officer has asked to deposit establishment cost of Rs 36 lakh for 0.27 acre on Mitkundri side. The amount would be deposited by Monday. Establishment cost for 0.57 acre on Lahanda side would be deposited when asked. Khatua further said only one slab on Lahanda side remains to be cast and the project would be completed in 40 days after getting physical possession of land.