Work on road projects in 5 Naxal hit districts soon

The construction work for five out of eight road projects in five Naxal affected districts of the state- Malkangiri, Gajapati, Rayagada, Deogarh and Sambalpur is expected to begin soon.

The Centre has already sanctioned Rs 644 crore for the eight road projects. The tendering process for these eight road projects has been completed and work has been awarded for five projects.

“Work on five out of the eight road projects proposed to be taken up in the five Naxal affected districts of the state is expected to begin soon. Moreover, two laning of the National Highways up to a stretch of 236 km will be taken up in western and south Orissa in this fiscal at a cost of around Rs 600 crore to be provided by the Centre”, said Subhendu Ray, secretary (works), Orissa government.

Meanwhile, the state works department will kick off construction work on six new Rail Over Bridges (ROBs) in the current financial year. Out of these six new ROBs, three will come up in Bhubaneswar and one each in Soro, Kalinganagar and Dhenkanal.

The cost of each of these ROBs would range from Rs 20-25 crore depending on the length of the approach road and the land that needs to be acquired for these projects, said Ray.

Besides, work on four-laning of the Bhubaneswar-Puri road is expected to be commissioned by the end of 2010-11.