Berhampur Ring Road to come up by 2024

Berhampur: The much-awaited Berhampur Ring Road to boost development in Berhampur, Chhatrapur and Gopalpur and ease traffic in Silk City would come up by 2024. The project is pending for the last one decade.

Odisha government has taken a decision for construction of Berhampur Ring Road from Ratnapur to Haldiapadar in Ganjam district through EPC mode of contract. The State Cabinet approved the lowest EPC tender of Ashribad Engineering & Constructions Private Limited in joint venture with M/s R K Infracorp Private Limited amounting to Rs 156.51 cr for the execution of the work. Berhampur MLA Bikram Panda, BJD Ganjam unit president Ramesh Chandra Chyau Patnaik and Berhampur Mayor Sanghamitra Dalai convened a press meet to express their gratitude to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for approving Berhampur Ring Road project in the State Cabinet meeting. The Chief Minister had laid the foundation stone for the 45-km long road project before the general elections in 2014. In 2013, the Ganjam district administration had announced to start work. But it became a non-starter due to absence of land acquisition. The construction started in November 2021, eight years after the foundation stone was laid, when Vijay Amruta Kulange was the Ganjam Collector.

National Highway No. 16 has a 13-km road from Raghunathpur to Ratnapur. The district administration was planning to connect this with 13-km stretch of the NH from Ratnapur to Haldiapadar through Dakhinpur and Lathi (15-km) and Haldiapadar to Mandiapalli (17-km) by PWD to give it ‘D’ shape Ring Road. As part of the proposed Ring Road, while 13-km long Raghunathpur-Ratanapur bypass road was planned to be constructed by National Highways Authority of India, a 15-km stretch of Dakhinapur-Lathi-Haladiapadar and a 17-km stretch connecting Mandiapalli-Karapalli and Phulta were supposed to be taken up by the Public Works Department at an estimated cost of Rs 330-crore.

The proposed Ring Road was scheduled to cover Ragunathpur, Ratanapur, Digapahandi Road, Chikiti Road, Haladiapadar, National Highway 16, Korapalli, University Road, Golabandh Gate and Ragunathpur.