Punjab to initiate techno-social audit of infrastructure projects

CHANDIGARH: Punjab government will carry out " techno-social audit" of all infrastructure projects in the state to rectify the deficiencies in implementation process and gauge the usefulness of the same.

"The aim of this exercise is to bring more transparency into implementation of infrastructure projects of the state," an official spokesman said here today.

In a meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Sarvesh Kaushal, it was felt that social audit should be conducted for various infrastructure projects being implemented by various departments like Public Works Department ( PWD), Punjab Infrastructure Development Board, Irrigation, Local Government, Housing and Urban Development.

Kaushal said techno-social audit would help to gauge the usefulness of the projects to the end users, rectify the deficiencies in implementation process and help in redesigning the objectives, focus and mode of implementation, if necessary.

The Chief Secretary has also issued directions to all the departments concerned to upload the entire information regarding the infrastructure projects on the official website clearly mentioning the scope of the projects, estimates, status, timeline, among other things.

It was also suggested in the meeting that top engineering institutes in the state should be associated for the purpose.

The spokesman said it was also suggested in the meeting that Administrative Secretaries concerned, involved in the implementation of infrastructure projects should randomly select 10 per cent of the total number of projects being implemented by them.

"These 10 per cent projects would be selected each from three slabs of project value-- Rs 0-5 crore, 5-10 crore and 10-50 crore. It was also decided that for the projects with value more than Rs 50 crores, the expert services of well-established public sector undertakings such as Engineers India Limited (EIL) of Government of India would be hired as Project Management Consultants," he said.