New Rourkela-Ranchi NH link to shorten distance.

A new National Highway (NH) passing through five Maoist-hit tribal dominated districts in Odisha and Jharkhand has become need of the hour to bring down the road distance between Rourkela and Ranchi.

The journey from Rourkela in Sundargarh district to Jharkhand’s capital Ranchi via Birmitrapur, Simdega, Kolebira, Basia, Torpa and Khunti takes about five-and-a- half hours covering 240 kms. However, the distance on train route is 170 kms via Nuagaon, Pokhla, Bakaspur, Balsiring and Hatia and superfast trains take 2.5 hours to cover the distance.

Sources said a new NH parallel to the train track would cut short road length by 70 kms, if it passes through Simdega, Gumla, Khunti and Ranchi districts in the tribal-dominated Jharkhand, which is affected by splinter Maoist outfit People’s Liberation Front of India (PLFI).

PLFI’s tentacles extend to Sundargarh side of the border from Nuagaon to Talsara. The combined population of the four Jharkhand districts is about 49.5 lakh and together with the 21.5 lakh population of the tribal-dominated Sundargarh district, the NH would benefit 71 lakh people of two States. Of 170 kms, Odisha would have 30 kms till Nuagaon.

Meanwhile, Rourkela’s hope for restoration of commercial flights was scuttled as the Jharsuguda airport is likely to begin operations in next two years.

But Rourkela Development Steering Committee president Subrata Patnaik claimed that Jharsuguda airport would hardly get one or two flights, while Ranchi airport has regular flights to all major domestic destinations. Now, the air passengers from Sundargarh and Jharsuguda districts have to go to Ranchi airport enduring a road journey of more than five hours. If the shorter National Highway comes up, it will cut short the distance and Jharsuguda airport can have more passengers.

Rourkela BJP legislator Dilip Ray said the Union Ministry of Road Transport & Highways has planned to four-lane 210-km stretch of NH-143 from Birmitrapur to Ranchi and he would request Union Minister Nitin Gadkari to consider exploring possibilities of NH between Rourkela and Ranchi.

Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram said he would study the suggestion before taking it up with the Central Government.

THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESS