The residents of the New Barracks Road area have been facing huge inconveniences due to traffic rush caused by Brahmapur Army Canteen and URC Extension Centre over past few years.

The parking of a large number of vehicles and long queues of army officials on the 30 ft narrow road of the New Barracks Street that connects to Old Bus Stand and Gandhi Square causes serious traffic and movement issues for common people, more particularly, the elderly, women and children. Due to non-opening of the gate by the local canteen authorities, thousands of ex-army officials who come to the canteen/store and URC Extension Center every day park their vehicles on the public road.

The women residents and house wives of the locality are scared to come out because of crowd and blockade of public road. A local resident and scribe drew the attention of the Secretary, Department of ESW, New Delhi about the problem in February this year requesting to direct the military canteen authorities to open their gate and ensure the parking of the vehicles inside their canteen premises instead of on public road, but in vain. Similarly, there are repeated requests by the local residents to have the queue as well as parking inside the premises of the extension counter of the canteen instead of on public road but the local authorities have ignored them. There is a demand to open another entry gate adjoining NCC office of the southern boundary of the URC Center and Ex-Army Service Hospital as this measure could avoid such huge crowd and parking problem which too remain unheeded.

Former Assembly Deputy Speaker Rama Chandra Panda keeping the public perceptions in mind and on the request of the local residents, too had written a letter in December 2017 and in June 2018 to the Secretary, Department of Defence, Government of India, requesting to open both entry and exist points of ECHS Complex from south or west side of the boundary wall of ECHS as the roads on these two sides do not have the residential area as an alternative measure for permanent solution of the problem.

In response to his letter, the MoD instructed the officers to investigate the matter and intimate HQs by January 26, 2018 which too was reportedly ignored by the local authorities of the military canteen.