Demolition drive continues in Odisha capital

Reported by Santosh Jagdev

Bhubaneswar, July 8:

As part of its ongoing demolition drive in the Odisha capital, a joint team of the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA), Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), Roads and Buildings division and General Administration (GA) department today demolished several illegal structures and cleared more than 1.7 kilometres of encroachment along the road starting from Sishubhawan Square to New Airport Sqaure in the city.

According to BDA Liaison Officer Subhranshu Mohanty, illegal structures, including 27 boundary walls built on government land and Hotel Forest park, were demolished for widening of the road. The existing road will be extended to a width of 80 ft. Three excavators and 25 officials of the above departments were engaged in the demolition drive, Mohanty said.

“On July 2, we had made an announcement in the area to vacate the encroachment land. Today, the demolition drive continued all day but still some structure are left to complete the action,” the BDA official said.

“The remaining illegal structures would be demolished on Friday after getting permission from the Capital police. We have taken permission from them for just today due to the ongoing Assembly session that resumes tomorrow,” he added.

To prevent any untoward incident during demolition, four platoons of police forces and one section of lady police force were deployed at the spot. Zonal ACP and staff of the Capital police station were present during the demolition.