Bhubaneswar: Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Mayurbhanj on Saturday, Chief Minister Naveeen Patnaik has shot off another letter to the Centre on Friday, regretting lack of maintenance of national highway passing through the district.
In the letter to Minister of Road and Transport Nitin Gadkari, the CM said that Hatgamahria-Benisagar stretch up to junction with NH 49 near Singada, passing through Mayurbhanj, was declared in principle as a NH in February 17, 2016, but no improvement work has been done so far.
While Modi is slated to lay the foundation stone for four-laning of some NHs passing through the State, Naveen requested Gadkari for declaring 4 stretched passing through Mayurbhanj as national highways.
According to political observers, the CM’s letter is intended at exposing the Centre’s neglect towards Odisha and an attempt to highlight that projects worth Rs 4,500 crore are being unveiled during Modi’s Odisha visit only with political considerations in mind in view of the ensuing elections to state assembly and the Lok Sabha.
In his letter, Naveen said that Odisha was “suffering a lot” due to lack of timely maintenance, improvement and widening of existing NHs which are important communication link in the State. Giving an example, he said that the Jharpokharia-Keonjhar-Sambalpur NH 49 passing through Mayurbhanj district is not in a “traffic-worthy condition”. Many public complaints have been received in this regard as well.
He requested Gadkari for declaring some important roads passing through Mayurbhanj as NHs. They include the 135 km long Bhadrakh-Anandpur-Thakurmunda-Karanjia-Singada stretch and the 110 km long Shergarh-Nilgiri-Kaptipada-Baripada stretch up to the West Bengal border.
Besides, Naveen demanded declaring the 54 km Rairangpur-Bangiriposi-Kalabadia stretch and the 70 km Jashipur-Champua section as NHs.
Earlier in the day, the CM had written to Railway Minister Piyush Goyal demanding a train service between Balangir and Bhainsapalli section, which received the safety clearance in October 2018, and introduction of mail and express trains from Nayagarh town to Kolkata and Visakhapatnam.
