Amid infra boost, proposal to widen roads gathers dust

ROURKELA: Even as Rourkela Smart City Limited (RSCL) is spending huge sum of money on parking infrastructure to prevent traffic snarls on the highly congested Rourkela main road, the proposal in 2015 to widen 10 connecting roads to help divert traffic to parallel Mahtab Road is gathering dust. This has raised apprehensions on efficacious use of the upcoming parking infrastructure.

Sources said the portion of the main road from Bisra Square to Mangal Bhawan point is worst affected due to encroachment by retail and wholesale shops. During business hours, traffic on the stretch crawls at a snail’s pace with almost 60 percent of the carriageway remaining occupied with parked vehicles and vending carts.