A bridge which has been a dream for several villages under Basta, Baliapal and Sadar blocks is yet to see the light of the day.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had laid the foundation stone for the bridge for the second time in February 2014 before the last general elections.

The bridge has missed the completion deadline, which was February last year. Although   the construction work of the bridge is on the verge of completion, yet a serious bottleneck has emerged, i.e, the land for approach road.

“The bridge is almost complete, yet the hurdle is the approach road.

The land required for the construction of approach road on the side of Panchupada village end falls under a private land. Unless the land is acquired, the approach road can’t be made and the bridge can’t be made operational,” said an officer of the Works Department.

The fresh project cost is estimated to be around Rs 21 crore.  It was taken up by the State Government with financial aid from the NABARD. It is being executed by a private company.

The bridge’s length is 143.27 metres and the approach road length is about 1,100 metres, including 440 metres from Solapata end and 640 metres from Panchupada end.

In fact, initially the  much-hyped bridge’s  (Panchupada bridge) foundation stone was laid by the then Chief Minister JB Pattnaik in December, 1988. And, it couldn’t be completed even after a lapse of 25 years of the foundation stone laid. For the second time, the foundation stone for the bridge was  laid here by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

A new hope was ignited among at least one lakh population after the new development. In the first attempt, in 1988, the bridge work began with an initial estimation of Rs 1 .76 crore.

After partly construction of two pillars, the bridge work ran into rough weather after irregularity of around  Rs 76 lakh  was alleged.

The project came under the scanner of the Vigilance and the work was stalled and abandoned altogether.