The skyline of this State capital city is all set for a makeover with new ring roads, skywalks, flyovers and subways being planned by the State Government.Major road infrastructure plans are being given final shapes with the thrust on improvement of the State Capital Region.
While setting up of an outer ring road of 69-kilometer length is on cards, another ring road of 64.9 km for the city is being fine-tuned to decongest the city roads, said sources in the Department of Works.
Chief Secretary JK Mohapatra reviewed the developments taking place in this regard at the State Secretariat last week. Development Commissioner Injeti Srinivas, ACS Finance UN Behera, Principal Secretary, Works Nalini Kanta Pradhan and BDA Vice-Chairman Vishal Dev were present.
Skywalk is proposed for pedestrian traffic at Rajmahal Square with a cost of Rs 19 crore. This would be the first of its kind in the State and ultramodern facilities would be provided in the system, said official sources. Three flyovers at Kalinga Hospital Square, Housing Board Square and Damana Crossings would come up with a total cost of Rs 180 crore, the sources said.
While an alignment study on both the ring road projects is completed, land acquisition would be undertaken for a 150-meter corridor. An innovative land acquisition plan is being worked out, and a decision would soon be taken in this regard, said the sources.
The major roads, which would be improved, include Jayadev Vihar Square to Cuttack NH-55, Barang-Pitapalli road, the road connecting to the Institute of Mathematics to Ekamra Kanan Park, Kateni Chhak to Nuagaon on Khandagiri-Chandaka road, construction up of a Bhubaneswar-Paradip road (a second route to the port city) and improvement of the roads connecting to ring road and outer ring road via Ansupa and Mahanadi river. These roads and other projects would be undertaken in a time-bound manner, said the sources.