TNI Bureau: The standing committee of the State Wildlife Board has given clearance to the long-awaited six-lane Capital Region Ring Road (CRRR) project. The committee, headed by Forest, Environment and Climate Change Minister Ganesh Ram Singhkhuntia, recommended wildlife approval for the project, which will be built by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) under the Bharatmala scheme.
The 110.87 km CRRR will connect Rameswar in Khurda to Tangi in Cuttack. A 40.33 km stretch between Gobindpur (Dhenkanal) and Bandalo toll plaza near Tangi requires wildlife clearance because around 1 km of the road will pass through the Kapilash Wildlife Sanctuary.
For this stretch, the project will need about 4,180 hectares of land, including 146.90 hectares of forest land, 97.95 hectares of water bodies, and 625.26 hectares of tree cover.
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A senior forest official said the proposal will now go to Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, who heads the State Wildlife Board. After the board’s approval, it will be sent to the National Board for Wildlife. The official added that once wildlife clearance is granted, NHAI must apply for forest diversion under the Forest Conservation Act. Earlier, the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) of the MoEFCC had already approved the Gobindpur–Tangi stretch.
The CRRR project, estimated at ₹8,307.74 crore, was approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The road will link major highways — NH-55, NH-57, NH-655, NH-16 and SH-65, improving connectivity to important economic and logistics hubs in Odisha.
Along with the CRRR, the committee also cleared four proposals for setting up mobile towers in villages lacking telecom coverage.
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