Bhubaneswar-Puri Stretch To Be Developed As Odisha’s First Model Highway

Bhubaneswar: The NH-316 between Bhubaneswar and Puri will be converted into Odisha’s first model highway stretch.

In a recent meeting to discuss road safety issued, Transport secretary Usha Padhee asked National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) officials to draw up a plan for development of this stretch in Odisha. “The chief general manager of NHAI has agreed that the stretch of road from Bhubaneswar to Puri will be developed into a ‘model stretch’. All required infrastructure will be provided,” Padhee told TOI.

A model stretch has all the required safety and aesthetic features, including road signs, road markings, road furniture and safety items, proper junctions and entry/exit points. With all these features, the stretch looks like a perfect textbook version of a model road.

The report, quoting sources, further said that the proposed model stretch will also have CCTV cameras to detect traffic violations, illumination, drainage, pedestrian walkways, plantation and landscaping, redeveloped toll plaza at Pipili, user facilities and wayside amenities and no black spots to avoid accidents.

In 2020, the NHAI had decided to develop 57 sections of national highways near each state capital as model stretches. These stretches total to 1,735 kms across the country included Dausa to Jaipur; Jalandhar to Amritsar; Srinagar to Banihal; Varanasi Ring Road; Chennai Bypass, Madhya Pradesh-Maharashtra border to Nagpur including Nagpur Bypass; and Brahmputra Bridge to Guwahati.