ROURKELA: As the code of conduct for the three-tier panchayat elections is likely to come into force in a fortnight, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is seemingly in a hurry to lay foundations for upcoming projects. Naveen, on a whirlwind tour of Sundargarh district on Sunday, laid foundations for 62 projects at an estimated cost of `686 crore. But timely completion of the projects remains a challenge for the district administration.
The thrust is to ensure basic facilities such as Bijli, Sadak, Pani to rural population apart from irrigation, education, rural community assets, tourism and health. Incidentally, the district is going ahead with solar street lighting system, Reverse Osmosis (RO) plants for potable drinking water, solar-powered water supply system and rural electrification.
Birmitrapur is the largest beneficiary of Naveen’s largesse amounting to `276.59 crore while eight projects in Rajgangpur were promised `172.64 crore worth projects and Bonai got 24 projects worth `144.18 crore. In Sundargarh constituency, `90.79 crore has been allocated for 15 projects. RN Pali was given `1.83 crore for construction of bridge.
On Sunday, the Chief Minister had inaugurated projects worth `53.38 crore in these five Assembly constituencies. Earlier, on November 22, Naveen had laid foundations for projects worth about `20 crore in Talsara Assembly constituency.
Sundargarh Collector Bhupendra Singh Poonia said tenders have been either floated or are in the process for almost all the projects. He said the projects will be completed on time.