To
The Honorable Chief Minister of Odisha, Shri Patnaik
CC
The Honorable Prime Minister of India, Dr Singh
Dear Honorable Chief Minister Mr. Patnaik,
Your letter to the Prime Minister for the development of KBK is significant. However, lack of proper vision and commitment by the state Government towards highway development in KBK region is clearly visible.
Perhaps KBK is being used as a political weapon by the state Government against central Government to divert public sentiment on state Government’s failure on poor implementation of various schemes, as the state Government has proposed 800 crore special grant for infrastructure development of state capital region, it has been continuously raising Puri-Bhubaneswar highways, Vijayawada – Ranchi highways, etc, both received substantial central Govt. grant recently, but very rarely any inter districts highways linking KBK districts was raised, except Motu-Rayagada line under proposed Vijayawada – Ranchi highways .
We have never seen any where the state Government was concerned for four lines of NH or two lane highways in KBK in any of the following routes.
(1) Four Lane: Balangir to Koraput via Bhawanipatna, Nabarangpur (NH201 & NH 43)
(2) Two Lane Highway: Nuapada to Dooduma (Koraput) via Sunabeda, Indra Dam, Sinapali, Dharamgarh, Moter, Jaipatan, Indravati dam, Muran dam, Kolab
(3) Two Lane Highway: Umarkote to Parliakhemundi via Jharigram, Gotomunda, Dharamgarh, Junagarh, Karlapat Kiapadar, Jaykaypur, Gunpur
(4) Four Lane: Nuapada to Phulbani via Bongomunda, Titilagarh (NH217)
(5) Nabarangpur to Phulbani via Mahulpatna – Thuamul Rampur – Lanjigarh – Tumudibandh
(6) Two Lane: Vijayawada to Ranchi via Jeypore- Dasmantpur-– Kashipur (of Rayagada) –Bhawanipatna – Madanpur Rampur – Kantamal (of Boudh) – Sonepur – Sambalpur
In my opinion, the proposed route of Vijayawada – Ranchi highway by state Govt. does not serve the economic reason between above two cities except passing through Maoists influence districts in Odisha. Indeed a better short and convenient route with economic reason would be a Vijayawada-Ranchi route passing through Motu – Malkangiri – Jeypore- Dasmantpur-– Kashipur (of Rayagada) – Bhawanipatna – Madanpur Rampur – Kantamal (of Boudh) – Sonepur – Sambalpur – Rourkela. This would have covered large part of KBK region (benefiting 5 out of 8 districts) and major towns like Jeypore, Bhawanipatna, Sambalpur, Jharsuguda and Rourkela. Comparative map of our proposal vs state Govt proposal is attached.
Road development of Maoists districts is very important, so is the road development of KBK region. The politics played by the state Government to favor few districts of political interest in the name of Maoist districts over other backward KBK districts are never appreciated.
Road development of Maoists influence districts in Odisha could very well be done in various different aspects such as Koraput – Baripada highways via Phulbani, Keonjhar etc. Naming such project as Vijayawada-Ranchi highway without economic consideration of the route was how much justified, when there is easy and alternative possibility?
Like the case of state Govt proposal for Vijayawada – Ranchi (VR) highway, our proposal for VR highway includes large portion of state highway, in that respect how commercially the route proposed by state Govt. will help to communicate these two cities nationally? Rather it would have been wise to develop VR route based on economic reasons passing through large area of KBK as proposed by us and alternatively consider another regional highway for Maoist districts.
I anticipate you look into this matter so that other deserving KBK districts in highway schemes are not made at the receiving end to serve political interest, by (1) proposing Vijayawada-Ranchi highway via Bhawanipatna, Sonepur, Sambalpur, Rourkela as mentioned above and (2) Koraput - Baripada highway passing through other Maoists district in Odisha such as via Phulbani, Keonjhar.
With best regards
Digambara Patra
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