The activists of District Youth Manch on Friday staged an economic blockade here at Duhuria Chowk on the Paradip-Daitary Expressway demanding shifting of the existing Srirampur toll plaza to Marshaghai. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) State president Ukal Keshari Parida and BJP district unit president Gyana Behura also joined the protestors expressing their solidarity with them.
The protestors said that on June 8, 2010 a meeting was held under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary to discuss shifting of the toll plaza which was attended by National Highway Authority of India (NHAI). A decision was taken that a team headed by the Commerce and Transport (C&T) Department Principal Secretary, along with NHAI representatives and Bhubaneswar Project Implementation Unit Project Director would make a filed visit and locate a suitable place for relocation of the toll plaza.
later, a team had made a field visit and submitted its report to the Government on feasible locations for shifting the toll plaza. The Government had been directed that the toll plaza of Srirampur be relocated at Marshaghai, 49 km from Chandikhol towards Paradip. Even, the Director of Bhubaneswar Project Implementation Unit was asked to take immediate steps for early relocation of the plaza in consultation with the concerned department of State Government, said NCP leader Parida. But the plaza is yet to be relocated.
The distance between two plazas should be more than 60 km from each other. But here, the Srirampur plaza is merely 35 km from the Tangi plaza, which violates the guidelines of NHAI, said the protestors.