BERHAMPUR: It is more than three years since the construction of the 41-km Berhampur-Taptapani road in Ganjam district began, but only 10 per cent of it has been completed till now. The road work, undertaken as part of the World Bank-funded Orissa State Road Project (OSRP), was scheduled to be completed in November 2010. Delay in the work has irked the local people and they ventilated their grievance before the chief engineer of the project at Digapahandi recently. Project chief engineer N K Pradhan reviewed progress of the project. Bike-riders and bus passengers face hardship as the road work is at snail’s pace, Khemundi Bar Association president Hruday Ranjan Mekap and several others told the chief engineer. The road project is important as many tourists, including foreigners, travel to Taptapani, famous for the hot-spring, via Berhampur. Padmanavpur, predominantly a weavers’ village, which is being developed as a rural tourist destination is also located on the way. Due to delay in completion of the project, frequent accidents are being reported. The Rs. 82-crore project was undertaken in November 2008 to improve the state highway road which connects Berhampur with Taptapani. Road engineers blamed the delay on land acquisition for the project. Land acquisition was completed in 28 out of 31 villages for the project, they said.Since the land acquisition process was yet to be completed, we have extended the deadline for completion of work by October 2012, said project executive engineer M R Mishra.
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