A long-standing issue of the FM College here was addressed after a foot overbridge (FOB), connecting the commerce block and the main campus of the college, was thrown open on Wednesday.

The FOB built at a cost of around Rs 45 lakh by the Works department was inaugurated by MP RK Jena and Sadar MlA JP Dash. The foundation-stone of the bridge was laid on August 27 last year.  Since  different  departments, including the administrative block, is in the main campus of the college, the students and staff members of the Commerce block, which was separated by a busy road, were facing lot of difficulties. This was not only causing communication inconveniences, the road crossing by students was causing jams.

For years while there had been a demand of the student mass for construction of a FOB, Jena had assured to address the issue after he was apprised of the issue.

“One of the oldest colleges of the State was facing hassle-free connectivity.  It was a long standing demand of the students as well as staff members, since for every small job they had to cross the busy road. After persuasions with the Government, the project was approved. This bridge would not only mitigate their perennial communication bottlenecks, but also ensure safety of the stakeholders,” said Jena.

 The Executive Engineer, Works, informed that the construction work of the FOB, following approval of the project, was undertaken with the funding from the non plan grant for year 2016-17 and the work commenced on September 22, 2016.

The students as well as staff members of the FM College expressed satisfaction as well as happiness with the realization of the long standing demand.

Baleswar municipality chairman Alok Sahu and chairman Baleswar regional improvement trust (BRIT) Gauri Kumar Rout were also present.