Naveen for NH upgrade before Nabakalebar

Nabakalebara festival of Lord Jagannath held in June 2015

Chief minister, Naveen Patnaik has urged the Centre to complete the road improvement works on Bhubaneswar-Puri National Highway (NH) before the Nabakalebara festival of Lord Jagannath due in June 2015.

"During my last review on the progress of works related to this festival, I observed that the progress of the workers on NH-316 (erstwhile NH-203) leaves a lot to be desired", Patnaik wrote to Nitin Gadkari, Union minister for road transport and highways.

He stressed that the completion of road over bridge on NH near Malatipatapur and the Puri bye-pass on the same highway along with four laning of the entire road from Bhubaneswar to Puri is essential before March 2015.

"While the state is getting ready for the unique festival, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) authorities have to substantially improve their pace of work. Otherwise, all our plans for tourist traffic management to and from Puri during the heavy rush will be completely disrupted," the chief minister pointed out in the letter.