Bhubaneswar evicts 81 families from Salia Sahi for parallel road project

Bhubaneswar: Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Saturday evicted 81 more families from Salia Sahi slum in the last leg of freeing govt land for the construction of a 13-km-long parallel road to the left of the Jayadev Vihar-Nandakanan stretch, in order to decongest the important artery.

Out of the 81 families, 67 were relocated to a permanent housing colony. Earlier, 566 families were evicted for the road, and of them 250 were relocated to permanent houses, while the remaining are in transit houses constructed by the BMC at Buddha Vihar, said BMC deputy commissioner (housing) Ajay Mohanty.

“With the eviction of these 81 families, the relocation process is over for the road work. The slum residents were served notice earlier and 67 families were found to be eligible for permanent houses. Along with the eviction and relocation, the illegal houses were also demolished on Saturday,” said Mohanty.

Official sources said the traffic congestion will be reduced by 35% to 40% after the parallel road, which will pass through Ekamra Kanan, Hatiasuni, Rail Vihar and Pathargadia, becomes fully operational. The parallel road will also serve as a sub-arterial road to connect the proposed ring road.

An eviction on a massive scale was conducted last Nov for five days.

Mohanty said the eviction exercise was completed with multiple teams engaged in the job. “None of the evictees can stay in the open, and so they were shifted with their belongings soon after demolition. On Thursday evening, residents were informed about houses that would be demolished so that they could take out their belongings,” said Mohanty.

Ramesh Bastia, 55, who lived in Salia Sahi for a long time, said he knew they would be asked to leave one day. “I spent 30 years in the slum. Now I am shifting my belongings to the new housing colony,” he said.

Besides BMC, Bhubaneswar Development Authority and police, Watco, energy and fire services departments were also involved in the eviction drive that helped retrieve 800-900 metres of land meant for the proposed left parallel road.

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