BJD questions coastal highway tender cancellation, BJP hits back
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Bhubaneswar:
BJD
on Tuesday criticised the decision of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to cancel the tender for the coastal highway project in Odisha.
The opposition party said the cancellation of the tender in such a manner has cast a shadow over the ambitious infrastructure initiative, which has seen no progress despite a decade passing since it was announced in 2015.
BJD vice-president and former minister Sanjay Das Burma told a press conference on Tuesday that the decision was a "double betrayal" of the
BJP
's promised double-engine growth in the state.
The project, part of the Centre's
Bharatmala Pariyojana
, was originally planned as a 413-km long coastal highway, later reduced to 346 km. "Union minister Nitin Gadkari announced the project in Pipili as a national highway," Das Burma ssaid.
He highlighted that while a tender was floated for a 176-km four-lane road from Rameshwar to Ratanpur, the detailed project report (DPR) for the remaining 170-km stretch remains pending.
The coastal highway was expected to significantly boost the state's infrastructure, transportation and tourism sectors. Das Burma emphasised its particular importance for Odisha, a cyclone-prone state, where the highway could have facilitated disaster response efforts.
BJP defended the tender cancellation, claiming that some technical changes needed to be incorporated in the DPR to ensure timely completion.
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It said the NHAI will rework the tender to make the project more viable for smooth execution.
"The previous govt's failure to provide required land caused the project's delay," said BJP MLA Manoranjan Dyan Samantara, asserting that the BJP govt is committed to actual development rather than empty promises.
He said the Centre is in no way going to back out from the project. "The coastal highway project will definitely see the light of day. There are some changes that need to be done, and the authorities are working on it," Samantara said.
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