Govt mulls triple city concept with ring road project

Bhubaneswar: From twin city to a triple city, the state govt is mooting an ambitious plan to have a triple city concept combining Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, and Puri with a mega ring road project, work on which is expected to commence soon.
An announcement in this regard was made by the housing and urban development minister, Krushna Chandra Mahapatra, on Tuesday. He said that the decision was taken keeping in view the expansion and population growth in these urban centres.
"We are conceptualising the ring road plan in coordination with the works department and revenue and disaster management department. The idea is to expand the city area while accommodating the growing population," Mahapatra said.
The minister said the state govt has envisaged making Bhubaneswar greater and better. The proposed ring road project, which will provide alternative connectivity to the state capital with Cuttack and Puri, is a step in this vision, he said.
"All the plans and proposals being presented and executed by our govt are for the benefit of people only. The coming year will see a lot of development, and the ring road and the triple city initiative will remain a priority of our govt," the minister added.
The works department and allied stakeholders, including the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA), already had in the pipeline a plan for a ring road having a length of 64.9 km in the BDA's planning area.
However, the work on this ring road project couldn't commence till now because of land acquisition issues. To deal with it, BDA is currently covering the proposed ring road sites with town planning scheme so that there will be no need to go for land acquisition.
Officials said under the town planning scheme, the BDA is taking the land from the owners and returning it back after redevelopment. In this process, BDA is keeping some land with itself, and the land for the ring road would come from this bank.
Besides this ring road, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) is also executing another ring road project for the city, having a length of 40 km. Dubbed as Capital Region Ring Road, NHAI recently floated a tender for this new city ring road having a width of six lanes.
"We have been hearing about ring roads for quite a long time now. The state govt as well as the Centre is proposing these ring roads, but not even a stone has been moved in these projects yet. I am very doubtful about the new announcement now," said Priyanka Patnaik, Patia resident.