Koraput school faces the hammer for 6-lane highway

Koraput: At least 128 students of Baghbhadra upper primary school under Borigumma block in the district are facing an uncertain future as the school will be demolished to make way for the construction of a six-lane highway by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).
The central scheme is under Bharatmala Pariyojana to connect Raipur in Chhattisgarh with Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.
Block education officer of Borigumma, Sachin Kumar Mallick, said the tehsildar concerned in a letter dated March 24 had intimated the office of the district education officer about acquisition of the school for the project and had sought bank details for payment of compensation of Rs 54 lakh.
Borigumma tehsildar Sabyasachi Jena said the school will be demolished as it falls on the land acquired for the highway project and compensation amount of over Rs 54 lakh will soon be handed over for the construction of a new school building at some other place in the village.
“The pace at which the highway construction is on, the school will be demolished soon. We are not opposing the construction of the highway but want a new building before the old one is demolished,” said Bidyadhar Nayak, president of the school committee.
Villagers said the school has classes from I to VII and it will take at least a year to construct a new school building. “If the school is immediately demolished, the students will face immense problems as there is no primary school nearby,” said Satyanarayan Chowdhury, a local resident.
While Koraput district education officer Rama Nahak expressed his ignorance on the issue saying he has not been intimated either by the NHAI authorities or the land acquisition officials, Jeypore MLA Tara Prasad Bahinipati said he will take up the matter with the district collector and the school not be demolished until a new building is constructed.
At least 873 hectares of private land, 307 hectares of government land and 363 hectares of forest land have been acquired for the project in Koraput and Nabarangpur districts for construction of 240 km of the highway. Officials said the Rs 16,000-crore project, once completed, will reduce the distance between Raipur and Vishakhapatnam from 593 km to 463 km and the travel time from 15 hours to 7.