Odisha sets timeline for mega projects implementation

BHUBANESWAR, October 6: With the Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) Project Monitoring Group noting that many bottlenecks for mega project implementation in the state have been removed, the Odisha Government today set a timeline for each of the 34 projects in the railway, national highway, steel and mines and power sectors. "Many of the bottlenecks related to land and forest diversion proposals have been removed and the projects have been put to first track," said V P Roy, Joint Secretary of the Cabinet Secretariat, who attended a review meeting chaired by Chief Secretary G C Pati. The timeline was set by the Chief Secretary and the project proponents and administrative departments were asked to comply, an official attending the meeting said. Pati said the project developers required to do compensatory afforestation have been advised to contact Orissa Space Applications Centre (ORSAC) for getting degraded forest land for the purpose. The state government has already created land bank for compensatory afforestation in order to expedite forest diversion proposals. The district administrations have been asked to provide all support in the event of law and order situations, the official said adding, Pati has also asked the project proponents to implement the agreed decisions on Rehabilitation and CSR activities quickly. The Cabinet Secretariat has already made provision of e-PMS, an online project monitoring system to monitor projects involving investment between Rs 100 crore to Rs 1,000 crore. The system tracks all stalled and ongoing investment projects in the context of the bottlenecks. The system includes facilities for online submission of projects, editing and updating of the projects, reviewing them and submission of details related to bottlenecks, if any. Roy said, "We are doing this exercise regularly and significant improvement has taken place in progress of the projects because of this exercise. Many of the bottlenecks related to land and forest diversion proposals have been removed and the projects have been put to first track." The major projects in the review included Bhubaneswar-Puri NH, Angul-Sambalpur toll road, Cuttack-Angul toll road, IOCL project for LPG pipeline from Paradeep to Durgapur, IOCL pipe line project from Paradeep to Ranchi, MCL coal mines, Natraj underground mines, Angul-Jharsuguda Railway line and Visa Power Limited.