Coastal Highway Dilemma: 'Betrayal' by Double Engine Sarkar?

The BJD has criticized the BJP-led NDA government for delaying the Coastal Highway project, calling it a 'betrayal'. The project, intended to connect Gopalpur to Digha was initiated in 2015 but faces uncertainty due to repeated tender cancellations and changes in design plans.

The opposition party BJD has launched a fierce criticism against the BJP-led NDA government, accusing it of stalling the long-anticipated Coastal Highway project. In a press conference, BJD vice-president Sanjay Das Burma termed the inaction a 'betrayal.'

The project's foundation stone, laid in 2015 under the Sagarmala project by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, seems under threat after the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) recently canceled a tender for a part of the work. The BJD is urging the state government to confront the Center over the decade-long delay and recent tender annulment.

Criticism extends to the reduction of the highway's scale from a four-lane to a two-lane road, against initial promises. The 346 km highway was designed to be an alternative route to the NH-16, connecting Gopalpur in Odisha to Digha in West Bengal. The BJP has not responded to these allegations.

(With inputs from agencies.)