Odisha to get Special Economic corridor, which will be constructed from Paradeep to Bhadrasahi-Barbil considering the business potentiality of the area.
The construction of this economic corridor will accelerate the transportation of minerals in the state.
Over the past few years, the state has seen significant improvements in the construction of both national highways and state highways. A total of 5,753Km long 38 NH has passed through 30 districts of Odisha. Among these, 19 NH which is 2,920 km long, are being run by the National Highways Authority, while the remaining 2,833 km are being run by the state government’s Department of Public Works and Construction.
In the meantime, with the growth of industrialization in the state and the increase in the number of steel plants, a special economic corridor needs to be built from Paradip of Jagatsinghpur district to Barabil of Kendujhar district. It should be accelerated as required, said chief secretary Suresh Mohapatra in a virtual joint review meeting of NH projects at Lokseva Bhawan, Bhubaneswar.
Secretary Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways, Government of India Giridhar Araman praised Odisha for NH improvement. He advised the field-level NHAI officers to be in regular touch with Collectors and Divisional Forest Officers for quick resolution of issues as and when they arise in the process of implementation.
The progress of different NH projects was reviewed in the meeting. Considering various contours of the ground level issues, Chief Secretary Mahapatra set timelines for different phases of the work against each project. The DFOs and Collectors were also directed to resolve the issues proactively within the scheduled timeline.
Giridha Aramane, Secretary Ministry of Road, Transport said, “Odisha model for NH improvement is very good. All officers from the level of Chief Secretary and Additional Chief Secretary to DFO and Executing Engineers are well conversant with alignment of the roads, progress of each project, and ground level issues that need to be tackled.”
Chief secretary Suresh Mohapatra said, “There is need for development of an economic corridor from Paradeep to Bhadrasahi-Barbil. NHAI should go ahead for land acquisition to have 100 mt ROW along this road for all future use, including provision of assorted utilities. State government would provide all support for land acquisition.”
The Odisha has been highly praised for reducing road accidents nationally. In particular, the state government has been lauded by the National Road Transport Department for the proper construction and maintenance of highways in 30 districts. Experts believe that the construction of both national highways and state highways has been accelerated and it will help for easy transportation and indusry as well as to reduce accident.
Bhabani Shankar Pani, Industry expert, said, “it is major requirment for the develoment of industry and easy transportation of goods. It is a good step to construct the economic corridior in state which will helpful for economic development.”
“The construction of economic corridor will help a hassle-free transporation in those routes from Mining area Barbil to Paradip. Similarly improvement of NH & state highway will help to reduce the accident in state,” said Road Safety Activist Subrat Nanda.
The issues relating to disbursement of the compensation awards against land acquisition, forest diversion, compensatory afforesation, construction of animal under pass (AUP), elephant under pass (EUP), and vehicle under pass (VUP), payment of user fee by State carriage buses, wild life clearances about certain patches of some roads, handing over the physical possession of land to the NHAI etc were discussed and resolved in the meeting.