Odisha is facing a double whammy so far as National Highways (NH) are concerned. On the one hand, while a number of State Highways are in principle approved as NHs, most of them are not notified as NHs and the damaged highways are not taken up for repair.
During 2015, 2016 and 2017, at least 12 State Highways were given in-principle nod for NHs, but as on today, seven State Highways are yet to be notified as NHs after so many years.
Similarly, while NHs get damaged due to multiple natural disasters, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) is not sanctioning funds for their repair, which has turned the roads to ‘death traps.’
The State Government is requesting for release of sufficient funds for maintenance of highways in the State, which is having nearly 3,000 km of NHs. More than 1,200 km NH length requires maintenance to make the road traffic worthy. The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways have been approached by the State Government in this regard time and again but in vain.
Earlier, it has been observed that the NHAI authorities are allegedly callous towards Odisha, which is facing repeated natural calamities such as heavy rainfall, tropical cyclones and floods when the roads get damaged.
During 2019, Odisha faced floods, cyclones and highways and bridges on NHs were left damaged. However, the NHAI is not sanctioning funds for repair, leading to a precarious situation.
The State Government had requested the Centre to release Rs 25 crore towards repair of the damaged NHs after Fani and the subsequent floods but the funds allocated by the NHAI are insufficient and repeated requests sent by the State Government for providing required amount of funds went unheeded.
A crucial connectivity between Bhawanipatna and Padmapur having 206 km length was given in-principle approval as NH in 2015. However, till date, the MoRTH has not notified the State Highway as NH and the Bhawanipatna-Khariar-Bangomunda-Patnagarh-Padmapur-Chhattisgarh border stretch is in a poor condition, with hardly any maintenance.
Now, the MoRTH is just not taking any action for approval of alignment and notifying the stretch as National Highway.
Similar is case in six other major State Highways, where people are facing hardship to commute due to their bad conditions.