Even as 16 months have passed since the Government took a decision to establish a logistic park (Transport Nagar) in the city to accommodate heavy goods vehicles and check traffic congestion and accidents, the project has remained a nonstarter for unavailability of land from the BDA and the Idco, much to the worry of transporters and common denizens.
According to information, the BDA/Idco was in August 2017 entrusted the job of identifying and providing a 100-acre land for establishment of a logistic park. However, they have not yet provided land to the department.
A BDA official said a patch of 100 acres of land had been identified along the Chandaka-Pitapali road first. As locals opposed the proposal, no decision was taken. Now, three locations, one having 80 acres of land, second of over 135 acres and third of about 300 acres, along the Chandaka-Pitapali road have been identified and the Khorda district Collector has been asked to hand over one of the three identified patches of land to the Idco.
“Logistic Park or transport nagar is one kind of small SEZs where all goods trucks will be parked and products will be stored in godowns and cold storages availed there. From there, goods and products would be transported to cities through mini trucks and other permissible vehicles so that traffic congestion will be reduced and products will be reaching shops in cities any time in the day. Besides, accidents would be checked,” said Bhubaneswar Goods Transport Association president Niranjan Praharaj.
Now, entry for heavy vehicles to the city has been prohibited from 8 am till 10 pm every day.
The proposed transport nagar will have all will have offices and godowns of the transporters, workshop of the vehicle manufacturers and other garages, spare parts shops, banks and ATMs, dormitory, cloth cleaning services (Dhobi Service), health centres, 24X7 ambulance service, security and police outpost, fuel pumps and multispecialty clinic, trauma care centre, driving training centre, hotel and restaurants.
“All these facilities will need deployment of huge manpower and, thus, the transport nagar will create employment opportunities for youths,” said Praharaj.
He said not less than 50,000 persons in and around the proposed logistic park can be created. Interestingly, the financial expenditure to be borne by the Government would be nominal and most of the expenses are expected to be borne by private companies, he said.
As a Smart City, Bhubaneswar should have a logistic park at the earliest in the interests of citizens, Government and transporters, viewed many.