Bangalore's iconic High Court and Cubbon Park have a Koraput connection as well. It is in the figure of an Irishman, Col Richard Sankey - their architect, who also connected Koraput to the rest of India through a pucca road for the first time. 
Sankey was a veteran of 1857 before moving to Civil engineering full time and becoming the Chief Engineer of Mysore and later Madras. It was in the latter role that he was given the task of connecting what were then known as the Agency areas of Ganjam, Vizag and Godavari Dists.
Before the present road from Salur, a hill track came up criss crossing the present road alignment from Pachipenta, now a small village. Its Zamindar was originally a peon of Jeypore who was given the title of Dakshina Kabata Yubraj because of Pachipenta's location
This road was infested with tigers and passed through steep ghats. The alignment was therefore changed under the direction of Col Sankey. He visited the ghat under construction in 1880 and his name was inscribed on a stone high up. I haven't been able to locate it yet!
A lasting contribution of his visit was the renaming of the village where the Ghat started. It and the Ghat are both called Sunki in his honour. Total cost of the road till Pottangi came to Rs 4 lakhs with a max altitude of 3500 ft at Ralegada.
The Ghat opened in 1884 and it was extended to Koraput in 1895. Heavy traffic followed. Paddy from Kotpad started flooding down to Vizag through carts which all converged at Dumuriput, then the main market of the district. The road has remained our principal artery ever since.
H/T to @jd_pati for suggesting this thread!
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