Naveen demands Gopalpur-Digha coastal highway

Says the coastal highway between Gopalpur and Digha would help connect several upcoming ports in the state

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today urged the Centre to approve a coastal highway connecting the beach town of Gopalpur with Digha in West Bengal.

The demand was made by Patnaik in New Delhi during his meeting with the Union minister for shipping, road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari. Patnaik said, the coastal highway between Gopalpur and Digha would help connect several upcoming ports in the state like Gopalpur, Astaranga, Paradeep, Kirtania and Chandipur. Since the state's coastline is susceptible to frequent cyclonic storms, a good coastal highway can aid in efficient rescue and relief operations in cyclone prone areas of the state, he suggested.

To ensure timely completion of the Gurupria bridge, the chief minister impressed upon Gadkari to sanction the balance amount of Rs 142.25 crore under Road Requirement Plan-II of Left Wing Extremism (LWE) scheme. The Gurupria bridge is critical for connecting cut off areas of Malkangiri district with the mainland, improving communication between Andhra Pradesh and Odisha and also to curb spread of LWE. Out of the total project outlay of Rs 187.25 crore, the Government of India has sanctioned only Rs 45 crore for the bridge under RRP-I.

Work on this bridge has already started under engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) mode. Patnaik also pointed out that improvement work on a number of important national highways (NH) on the PPP (public private partnership) mode has not started since the tenders were unsuccessful. He urged the Union minister to take up improvement work on key NHs- Cuttack-Angul (NH-55), Angul-Sambalpur (NH-55), Sambalpur-Deogarh (NH-53), Deogarh-Keonjhar-Jamsola (NH-49), Balasore-Baripada-Jharpokharia (NH-18) and Birmitrapur-Rourkela-Barkote (NH-143) under EPC mode. Patnaik sought allocation of at least Rs 25 crore in 2015-16 for repair of NHs. In the last fiscal, allocation of Rs 14.39 crore under this head fell short of the requirement of Rs 30 crore.

He also pitched for connecting two district headquarters- Jajpur and Jagatsinghpur with the NH network in sync with the Government of India's extant policy which provides that all district headquarters of the state be connected with the NH network. Gadkari assured the chief minister that all the proposals will receive the priority attention of the Union government and efforts will be made to connect the two districts with the NH network.