Trace the road if you can

CUTTACK: Long queues of passenger and transport vehicles, a noisy traffic jam and an excruciating wait to reach the other end. This is a scene daily witnessed at the Mission Road, Cuttack. The situation worsens during rains.Travelling on the road, particularly a stretch near S B Women’s College becomes a harrowing task as the stretch is thoroughly potholed, causing road accidents and breakdown of vehicles. Since the road is strategically located, a lot of people choose to use the road though rains have damaged it badly. Besides, due to uneven road structure water-logging is a common problem on the stretch. As a result pedestrians, cyclists and scooterists bear the muddy water that gets sprinkled on them whenever any vehicle zooms past them.  Apart from this, there is always the risk of falling into a pothole or skidding due to mud and slush.The Mission Road acts as a connecting link between Buxi Bazaar, Chandi Mandir square and Cantonment Road and houses three major colleges, as many schools and shopping complexes and residential buildings.“The situation is agonising, particularly for women and senior citizens, who face a lot of hardship passing through the dangerous patches. A little shower in a day makes the road even more riskier to pass through. On a rainy day, only a portion of the road is visible and commuters have to negotiate with potholes with rainwater filled in all over,” said Bhramarbar Hota, a resident of the Mission Road lane.To add to the woes of commuters, residents and shopkeepers along the road, overflowing sewer at many places leads to accumulation of dirty water on both sides. They complain that repeated pleas made to the officials of Municipal Corporation have failed to evoke any response. “There have been quite a few accidents due to bad condition of road but the civic body hasn’t initiated any action,” says Chakradhar Prakash, a shopkeeper in the area.The damaged road also causes damage to vehicles which pass on the road frequently.Even certain parts of the road on Chandi Mandir square have been damaged leading to water-logging after rains.The Commissioner of Cuttack Municipal Corporation Rabi Narayan Nanda said immediate repair work on damaged roads cannot be taken up as the construction materials will be drained away in case it rains. “We will touch up the damaged roads in the next few days, but repair and re-carpeting of the dilapidated roads will be taken up in a proper manner after the monsoon,” he added.