BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday directed the officials of Works Department to complete the road overbridge (ROB) at Malatipatapur in Puri district by April-end.
The Chief Minister gave the direction while reviewing the activities of the Department at the Secretariat here. Other infrastructure projects undertaken by the Department for Nabakalebara were also reviewed at the meeting.
Official sources said additional funds worth Rs 1,000 crore will be provided in the Supplementary Budget for implementation of Biju Expressway, Gurupriya bridge, Ranchi-Vijayawada highway and other infrastructure projects.
The review revealed that the Works Department has utilised Rs 3,546 crore out of the budget provision of Rs 3,609 crore, which is 98.2 per cent of the allocation. Official sources said out of the 1205 kilometre (km) Vijayawada-Ranchi corridor, 239.3 km National Highway (NH) has been completed while work on 778.95 km is on.
Tender process for the Rs 3,600 crore Biju Expressway connecting Nabarangpur to Rourkela has started. Work on Gurupriya bridge has also started. The bridge will improve communication facilities in the Maoist-affected Malkangiri district. The Chief Minister directed officials of the Department to complete the Rs 187.25 crore-bridge project in time.
Besides, the Chief Minister also directed the officials to complete the bridges which are being constructed on river Mahanadi near Cuttack and Sambalpur as per the deadline.
Official sources said construction of six flyovers in Bhubaneswar and one flyover in Sambalpur will be taken up in 2015-16. Besides, ring roads will be constructed in Bhubaneswar, Sambalpur, Berhampur and Balangir during the year. Work on by-passes for Manumunda, Bhawanipatna, Mangalpur and Jajpur will also be started soon.
Similarly, four-laning of Rourkela-Sambalpur highway will be taken up through public private partnership (PPP) mode and three more road projects have been planned to be taken up under PPP. All the State highways will be double-laned. Besides, improvement of all major district roads and other roads will be taken up on priority.