Nearly 250 families residing in the Acharya Vihar area may breathe easy now as a joint team of the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA), Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), the General Administration (GA) Department and the Cuttack Drainage Division jointly demolished the structures that were obstructing construction of drain-4. Once the drain comes up, it would end the waterlogging woe in the area.
BDA Enforcement Officer Deba Prasad Dash said nearly a 700 metre long passage encroached by 21 plot owners of Madhusuda Nagar and some slum dwellers were evicted for the construction of the drain, which would have a connection with natural drainage channel-4.Dash said keeping in view the waterlogging problem during rainy season in the Acharya Vihar area where around 250 families reside, the State Government in 2006 had made a plan to construct drain-4 from Ekamra Kanan to Acharya Vihar through which the rain water was to be discharged.
But the construction work was stopped in the same year following an Odisha High Court stay order on a writ petition filed by around 13 petitioners (plot owners) of Madhusudan Nagar challenging the Government’s move to demolish their frontage and plantation.later, the Additional land Officer of GA Department had filed a counter affidavit against the stay order stating that the opponents who occupied the front spaces of their residential plots belong to the State Government.
The court, after hearing the case on March 6 last, had directed to the concerned departments to demolish the fence constructed by the plot owners. According to sources, the drain will be constructed under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission at the coast of Rs28.79 crore.Around 40 staff of BDA, BMC, GA department and Drainage division along with two bulldozers were engaged in the demolition drive. Elaborate security arrangements were made to avoid any eventuality.