After a brief lull, the Keonjhar district administration made a fresh bid to start construction of the proposed controversial bridge over river Kusei at Belabahali in the district on Wednesday.
This is the third attempt of the administration to go ahead with the project work after two earlier unsuccessful bids.
The district administration imposed prohibitory orders under Section 144 of CrPC and deployed 18 platoons of police forces at the site in order to make a fresh attempt to start with the construction work at the disputed site.
The district Collector, SP and other senior officials of NHAI on Tuesday held meeting and decided to start with the work of the proposed bridge on the National Highway-215. Notably, there has been a longstanding dispute over the location of the bridge site with villagers opposing the bridge at the proposed site citing that the bridge would create flood like situations. Police had earlier clashed over the issue with the villagers on several occasions.