Srimandir Heritage Corridor: Admin opens outer access road but 'inconvenience persists'

The Puri administration opened the outer access road of the Srimandir Heritage Corridor project for the public on Thursday.

The administration opened the road ahead of the world-famous Rath Yatra scheduled to begin from June 20.

“We have already opened the outer access road for the public. There are no more problems in the movement of people,” said the Superintendent Engineer of Odisha Bridge & Construction Corporation (OBCC) Limited, Prabhat Panigrahi.

However, pictures from the ground tell a different story as mounds of construction material and equipment are lying scattered all over the place with incomplete roads posing much inconvenience for the locals.

“It is already difficult for the pedestrians to walk here, let alone the cycles and two-wheelers. The road works are incomplete as there are many patches with large potholes. The recent rains had made the life of pedestrians miserable with mud and water-logging,” said a local of Puri.

“The government had promised us to complete the project before this Rath Yatra. But looking at the current situation it seems the corridor project won’t be finished even before Rath Yatra 2024,” he rued.

The situation is more dire at Kakudikhai square behind Emaar mutt which connects the South gate of Srimandir to Balisahi. Huge heaps of sand have been deposited in front of the South Gate. Continuous construction work with piles of construction materials has caused much inconvenience for the locals.

In fact, some locals have even started to question the purpose of opening the outer access road in front of the west gate of the temple. The buildings of the information kiosk and the toilets have just finished and they are far from being usable for the public.

Earlier, the administration had promised locals and servitors to provide connecting roads from all the ‘Sahis’ to the outer access road, but that now seems to be a distant dream for many. For example, as per the ritual, Servitors from the Dattamohapatra Sahi take the ingredients for Khadi Mahaprasad to Srimandir every day. But drains on their path have put them in a fix. They now find it unholy to walk through the drain water with the Mahaprasad for Lord Jagannath in their hands.

“We are crossing this drain every day to take the Khadi Mahaprasad to Simandir. It is unholy and may the Lord excuse us for this sin. But we are helpless. The administration is not paying any heed to our demands to close the drain,” rued a Servitor.

“Officers are careless and they never try to understand our problems as a daily commuter. The locals who commute regularly on this road need to be provided a safe passage first,” said another local of Puri.

As per the plans, 20 metres beyond the 55 metre radius on which the outer access road has been constructed, will be used as the shuttle lane. It will be used to ferry devotees around the Temple on electric vehicles.

However, incomplete work in the project has raised serious question marks on the efficiency of the government.