Delay in completion of Puri road comes under HC scanner

The delay in completing the work of a national highway between Bhubaneswar and Puri because of court stay orders on land acquirement came under the scanner of Orissa High Court today.
Adjudicating a PIL on it today, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Amitava Roy and Justice A K Rath directed the petitioner, advocate Nishikant Mishra, to furnish within a week details of the cases in which stay orders have been issued by the High Court.
Annexing a report obtained under RTI, Mishra has in his PIL alleged the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) was not serious about completing the 59 km road.

"Although the Rs 500-crore project was scheduled to be completed by September 2013, only 80 per cent of the road is complete till date," Mishra said in his petition adding that the work on the remaining stretch could not be taken up due to HC's stay orders on land acquisition.
To an RTI application, NHAI had informed Mishra in May that the project missed its deadline by over seven months and it was being further hampered due to delay in land acquisition.
"Due to High Court's stay order on land acquisition on Puri bypass, the work has been delayed," NHAI Project Director Anil Dixit had said in reply to Mishra's RTI application.

Mishra in his PIL sought the HC's intervention for completion of the road project before Lord Jagannath's ritual 'Nabakalebar' in July next year, during which over 30 lakh devotees are expected to visit Puri.
Mishra also sought a direction to NHAI to complete the other bypasses at Bhubaneswar, Pipili, Chandanpur and Bata Mangala on this stretch before 'Nabakalebar' and maintain the original roads passing through these markets.
"Due to plying of heavy vehicles carrying construction materials of the project, the roads passing through these junctions are now in a dilapidated state," the PIL said.