Berhampur: A temporary bus stand was inaugurated by commerce and transport minister Bibhuti Bhusan Jena near Duduma colony here on Wednesday. It has been developed by Berhampur Development Authority (BeDA) on around 4 acres of land. MLA (Berhampur) K. Anil Kumar, and Ganjam collector V. Keerthi Vasan were present at the function.The temporary bus stand was built to hasten construction of the ongoing over bridge at Gate Bazar, one of the busiest areas of the city. The buses coming from Aska and Digapahandi will stop at the temporary bus stand at Duduma Colony without entering the city.
The passengers will have to take an auto-rickshaw to go to different areas of the city. The overbridge work is not proceeding at good speed due to heavy traffic in the area. To facilitate the work, the administration has taken up a patch of land of the state govt-owned Odisha Power Transmission Corporation Limited on a lease basis for two years and developed the temporary bus stand, official sources said.The temporary bus stand was developed at an estimated cost of around Rs 1.50 crore and they have planned to expand it by spending another Rs 2 crore, said Manoj Patra, city engineer. The temporary bus stand has a 150-ft long shed, toilet complex, round-the-clock water supply, light arrangement, two ticket counters, etc, he said. The minister said he has directed the district administration to speed up land acquisition to complete the overbridge.Around Rs 71 crore overbridge work was started from Oct last year. The 1135-metre-long and 22-metre wide bridge will have 5.5-meter service roads on both sides. It will have a drainage system. Currently, the width of Gate Bazar is around 14 metres.When completed, the flyover will resolve the traffic problem at Gate Bazar square, where five roads are connected. At present the traffic snarls have become common on NH-59, which passes through Gate Bazar due to heavy traffic.
