Road in front of Naveen Niwas to be sealed in Odisha capital

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Mar 22:

In order to beef up security at Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s residence Naveen Niwas in Odisha capital, the road in front of it would be sealed.

The Home department is planning to demolish Biju Patnaik airport boundary wall located in front of Naveen Niwas and new road would be constructed for public.

The decision has been taken in view of the past incidents including demonstrations and protests in front of the CM’s residence.

As the Naveen Niwas comes under the VVIP security region, the Home department is planning to impose section 144 at the area adjacent to Biju Patnaik International Airport throughout the year.

With sealing of the road, the public transport to other locations via Naveen Niwas road will be diverted to another rout, said a senior official in the Home department.

The General Administration (GA) department has decided to exchange 3.200 acre with Bhubaneswar Airport Authority to tighten the security of CM’s residence. The new road would be constructed on the acquired land for the public transport. Later, the road in front of Naveen Niwas would be sealed forever, he said.

The GA department would acquire 1.600 acre, 0.080 acre of land number 659 and 1.520 acre of plot number 1035 of khata number 746 of Bhimapur Mouza belonging to Bhubaneswar Airport Authority. Following completion of land acquisition process, two lane road from Old Airport square to Punama Gate would be constructed, sources from GA department said.

As the land is not used for flight operation, we have no issue to hand over the land to the GA department. The government would allot us same volume of land in exchange of 3,200 acre, said Bhubaneswar Airport Director R Mahalingam.

The Airport Authority of India (AAI) has also given permission for the deal, he added.

In exchange of land, the government would provide 1.600 acre, 0.307 acre of plot number 495/1664 and 1.293 acr e of plot number 493 of Bhimapur Mouza khata number 746 to the airport authority that will construct a taxi runway in the land. The GA department would identify the land and hand over the land soon for facilitating the airport authority for land acquisition without interruption. The project would be completed in three years. For failing to meet target, the Bhubaneswar airport authority would return the land to the government, said a sources in GA department.

Notably, the Naveen Niwas witnessed series of violence, protests and demonstrations on the road in front of it. Last year, a home guard set himself on fire despite heavy security to press his demand.

Total 130 SSB jawans are deployed per day for security of Naveen Niwas. The security personnel are deployed in three shifts.