Bhubaneswar: The proposed parallel road from Jayadev Vihar to Nandankanan in Odisha capital has obtained clearance from Forest department after the state government identified same area of land for compensatory afforestation.
According to sources, the Forest and Environment department has given its approval for diversion of 10.18 hectare (around 25 acre land) of the forest land under Chandaka Wildlife Division for construction of 1.7 km road. The approval follows identification of a similar patch of land in Tulasideipur.
“A patch of land near Tulasadeipur under Bhubaneswar tehsil of Khurda district was earmarked and transferred in favour of the Forest department in August after declaring it as protected forest for compensatory afforestation. The land patch is 10.37 hectare in size,” TNIE quoted a forest official from Chandaka as saying.
The patch has been identified in lieu of land diversion for a 200 ft wide road in a stretch of 1.79 km from Rail Vihar to Hatiasuni-Ekamrakanan park for the left parallel road also known as ‘Left Side Road Network’.
The parallel road project is executed by the R&B division and Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA). It envisages developing two roads parallel to the existing stretch from Jayadev Vihar to Nandankandan.
The left parallel road from Xavier Square will be connected to Chandaka Square via Patharagadia and the Institute of Mathematics. The 13 km road, estimated to cost around Rs 92 crore is being constructed in seven stretches. Work on one of the stretches has already been completed and the remaining are in progress.