Cuttack: Jajpur district administration has approached the National Monuments Authority (NMA) seeking statutory clearance to resume work on a park near the protected Buddhist archaeological site at Udayagiri in Gopalpur, Orissa high court has been informed.Construction was stopped after the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) issued a notice, citing the need to comply with heritage protection requirements.Under Sections 20 and 20A of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (AMASR) Act, a 100-metre prohibited area and an additional 200-metre regulated area are prescribed around centrally protected monuments.Darpan tehsildar Manas Kumar Tripathy, authorised by the Jajpur collector, filed an affidavit on Sept 22 in response to a PIL alleging that the park construction posed a threat to Udayagiri monuments, one of the country’s foremost Buddhist archaeological sites.The PIL was filed by Bhubaneswar-based researcher Prakash Chandra Nayak through advocate Pradipta Kishore Bhuyan. The matter assumes significance as India has submitted the names of Udayagiri, Lalitgiri and Ratnagiri for UNESCO World Heritage Site status.The HC has fixed Oct 1 for hearing the PIL as it could not be taken up on Thursday due to time constraints.The affidavit said the BDO of Badachana, on the collector’s instructions, wrote to director culture-cum-competent authority, NMA, Odisha Circle, Bhubaneswar, on Aug 17 seeking permission to complete the remaining work.The administration said construction would resume “only upon receipt of the requisite statutory permission”, and would comply with heritage laws, guidelines and conditions imposed by the competent authority.