The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved the construction of a 6-lane access-controlled Capital Region Ring Road (Bhubaneswar Bypass) in Odisha at a capital cost of Rs 8,307.74 crore.According to an official release, the project will be developed on Hybrid Annuity Mode (HAM) and cover 110.875 km between Rameshwar and Tangi. It is aimed at addressing congestion along the existing National Highway corridor passing through Khordha, Bhubaneswar and Cuttack.“The project will provide significant benefit to Odisha and other eastern states by diverting heavy commercial traffic away from Cuttack, Bhubaneswar and Khordha cities. This will enhance the efficiency of freight movement, reducing logistics cost and driving socio-economic growth in the region,” the release said.The alignment will integrate with three major National Highways—NH-55, NH-57 and NH-655—and one State Highway (SH-65). It will also connect with 10 economic nodes, four social nodes and five logistics nodes, while ensuring multimodal connectivity to one major railway station, Bhubaneswar airport, a proposed multi-modal logistics park and two ports at Puri and Astrang.The statement noted that upon completion, the bypass would strengthen connectivity between major religious and economic centres, apart from creating fresh opportunities for trade and industrial growth. It is also expected to generate nearly 74.43 lakh person-days of direct employment and 93.04 lakh person-days of indirect employment.Project details show that of the Rs 8,307.74 crore cost, Rs 4,686.74 crore is earmarked for civil works and Rs 1,029.43 crore for land acquisition. The bypass will form part of the Kolkata–Chennai corridor and is projected to handle an average daily traffic of 28,282 passenger car units in FY25.