Odisha's Chief Minister, Mr. Majhi, has announced a project aimed at mitigating flooding and easing traffic.
The Water Resources department had prepared a detailed project report for the embankment and ring road, but the implementation was delayed.
Arpit Pattnaik
A long-pending project aimed at mitigating flooding and alleviating traffic congestion in the headquarters town of Sundargarh district is poised to proceed after a five-year hiatus. The Chief Minister, Mohan Charan Majhi, recently announced the commencement of the project, although no specific timeline was provided. The endeavor involves the construction of an embankment along the Ib river and a parallel ring road, as proposed by Jogesh Singh, the BJD MLA representing Sundargarh. This project, encompassing the construction of a river embankment and a ring road from Bhojpur to Bandhpali bridge, covering municipality wards 1, 2, 3, 7, and 8, was sanctioned by the 129th Technical Advisory Committee for the Flood Control Board on December 27, 2019, with an estimated cost of `84.39 crore.
The Chief Minister indicated that implementation steps would ensue upon the approval of funding. Notably, the proposal for the project was initiall approved during the tenure of former BJP MLA Kusum Tete but was subsequently put on hold. Emphasizing the project's urgency in safeguarding Sundargarh town from monsoon flooding and mitigating traffic congestion, Singh underscored the impact of the upstream barrages constructed by the Chhattisgarh government, which lead to the Ib river being dry during summers and flooding during monsoons when water is released. He also attributed the amplified vehicular traffic in Sundargarh town to the escalating coal mining operations in the Hemgir block.
Although the Water Resources department had prepared a comprehensive project report for the embankment and ring road, its implementation faced delays. Stressing the imperative nature of constructing the embankment, particularly with the prospect of two new barrages downstream at Kopsingha and Kurabaga for water storage, Singh expressed concerns that the absence of an embankment could result in the inundation of low-lying areas in the town due to backwater from these barrages.
Once operational, the ring road will facilitate traffic bound for Rourkela to bypass the town center and directly connect to State Highway 10.
