Landslide at kalinga ghat on NH-157

Restoration work at Kalinga Ghat, a stretch of NH-157 connecting Ganjam and Kandhamal districts, was hit due to a fresh landslide on Monday, an official said.

The stretch was badly damaged after massive landslides on September 16. While several huge rocks rolled down the hills due to fresh rainfall, other rocks were hanging precariously, National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) chief construction engineer Bankim Chandra Panda, who was on the spot to oversee the repair work, said. The situation is terrible now and work has been stalled, he said. “Even though we deployed heavy equipment for repair to restore traffic movement temporarily, work can’t progress now,” he said, adding the fresh landslide was a setback for the restoration.