Over three years have elapsed since the start of the construction of the 41-km-long Berhampur-Taptapani road in Orissa's Ganjam district, but only ten percent of it has been completed so far.

The road work, undertaken as part of the World Bank funded Orissa State Road Project (OSRP), was scheduled to be completed in November 2010.

Delay in work has irked the local people and they ventilated their grievance before the chief engineer of the project at Digapahandi recently. chief engineer of the project N K Pradhan reviewed progress of the project.

Bike riders and bus passengers face hardship as the road work is going on at snail's pace, president of Khemundi Bar Association Hruday Ranjan Mekap and several others told the chief engineer.

The road project is important as many tourists, including foreigners, travel to Taptapani, famous for the hot-spring, via Berhampur.

Padmanavpur, predominantly a weavers' village, which is being developed as a rural tourist destination is also located on the way.

Due to delay in completion of the project frequent accidents were reported in the road. The Rs 82-crore project was undertaken in November 2008 to improve the state highway road which connects Berhampur to Tapatapani.

Road engineers blamed the delay on land acquisition for the project. Land acquisition was completed in 28 out of 31 villages for the project, they informed.

Since the land acquisition process was yet to be completed, we have extended the deadline for completion of work by October 2012, said the executive engineer of the project M R Mishra.