Odisha claims to have achieved 100% fund utilisation in Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana

BHUBANESWAR: Odisha government claimed to have achieved 100 per cent fund utilization under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana ( PMGSY) during 2012-13.

This was claimed by the rural development department at the review meeting chaired by Chief Secretary JK Mohapatra. He asked the department to focus on maintenance of roads already constructed and quality monitoring at the time of construction.

Mohapatra also suggested to Rural Development Secretary CJ Venugopal to work out draft norms regarding the type and level of roads to be owned by the Panchayati Raj, RD, PWD and H&UD separately. He also issued directions to strengthen the second-tier quality monitoring in implementation of PMGSY projects.

As the state is often criticised for not creating proper manpower for execution of PMGSY projects, the meeting decided to set up at least 10 new project implementing units (PIU) for enhancing the implementation capacity of state machinery.

The 10 new PIUs will be set up in rural works divisions of Kuchinda, Baliguda, Mohana, Gunupur, Bhanjanagar, Kasingha, Kharia, Patnagarh, Jeypore and Nayagarh-II for implementation of the projects.

As many as 10,518 number of roads with a total length of 41,260.28 kms was sanctioned last year. An amount of Rs 9,711.80 cr was released for undertaking construction of these roads.