Cuttack: Union Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister, Nitin Gadkari on Friday approved the much awaited Vehicular Under Pass (VUP) project at Sikharpur area on NH-16 that passes through Cuttack.
Earlier, Cuttack MP Bhartruhari Mahtab had placed a demand before the Union Minister for necessary approval for the project at Sikharpur crossing which has become an accident-prone spot.
In a letter to Mahtab, Gadkari informed that, 'The proposal for the construction of VUP at Sikharpur in Chandikhole- Jagatpur- Bhubaneswar on NH-16 section has been approved.'
Already two bidders have participated in the bid and the construction work is expected to be taken up after awarding the contract following completion of necessary norms.
In a letter to Gadkari on March 16, 2018, Mahtab had requested the Union Minister to issue necessary direction to NHAI for the construction of the vehicle underpass following a petition by Senior Citizen Association.
“The Petition Committee after long deliberations and hearing my views in its report No. 40 presented to Lok Sabha on 22 December 2017, has strongly recommended that the Ministry must resort to ‘out of box’ thinking on the issue and, adopt radical measures to come out with workable propositions to formalize the construction of new VUP at Sikharpur Traffic Square, Cuttack without further loss of precious time," Mahtab had stated in his letter.
The Committee, further, recommended that appropriate solution considering all possible options like an introduction of ‘Box Pushing Technique’ should be adopted to mitigate the grievances of the local population,” letter further read.