Major roads in Silk City to get a facelift in New Year
BERHAMPUR: Some of the major roads in the Silk City are likely to get a facelift in the coming New Year as the Berhampur Municipality Corporation (BeMC) has decided to repair them by the end of December. The civic body has decided to spend around Rs 3 crore for the repair of some of the identified roads and 37 community and public toilets in the city.
Tender has already been floated for the repair of the roads and toilets. “All these works will be completed by the end of December,” said BeMC commissioner Siddheswar Baliram Bondare. The expenditure for this purpose would be borne from the funds of the civic body and Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM), he added.
The civic body has identified 17 roads and two culverts in different locations of the city for repair. The approach roads to the community toilet complexes will also be constructed along with the repair of community and public toilets, an official source said.
The condition of the roads in the city has deteriorated due to rain in the first and second week of October. Moreover, roads in several areas are in bad shape due to the laying of pipelines under the Janibili water supply project.
Even though all these years, some of the city roads would get a makeover before Dussehra, the civic body, however, did not take up major repairs this year before the festive season due to the prediction of heavy rain, said an official. Residents of different locations had expressed anger at the quality of the roads. MP (Berhampur) Chandra Sekhar Sahu, MLA (Berhampur) Bikram Kumar Panda along with Bondare inspected the drain and roadworks in different areas of the Silk City on October 3.
People of Prem Nagar expressed dissatisfaction as the BeMC did not fix a time frame for completing the ongoing road and drainworks in the area.
The 2.6-km-long road and drainworks in Prem Nagar and Andhapasara Road, undertaken about three years ago under the Odisha Disaster Recovery Project (ODRP), a World Bank funded project, are yet to be completed.
“Earlier we had apprised the BeMC of the nightmare the residents of the area are facing due to slow pace of the road and drain construction works. “It is unfortunate that the civic body did not hear our grievances,” said Durga Prasad Panda, a resident of the area. The commissioner said repair of roads and drains would be completed soon.