BHUBANESWAR: Nearly three years after announcement of the Gangadhar Meher Lift Irrigation Project in Bargarh district, the State Cabinet on Wednesday approved the tender for execution of the work amounting to Rs 1138.63 crore.
The project announced in October 2017 before the Bijepur by-election was hanging fire due to paucity of funds. With an estimated cost of Rs 1340.55 crore, the Government had made a token provision of Rs 200 crore in 2018-19 and Rs 100 crore in 2019-20.
However, not a single work has started yet. "The assurance given by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to the people of Bijepur is going to be fulfilled. The project will provide irrigation to 25,600 hectare land in 124 villages under Bijepur, Sohela and Barpali blocks of Bargarh district and Dunguripalli block of Subarnapur district," Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy said after the meeting.
The construction of the project will be done through engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) mode on turnkey basis and will be completed within 30 months.
There is provision of installation of automated micro irrigation system in 30 per cent command area of the project. This will help farmers to increase productivity by optimum utilisation of water, he added.
The Cabinet approved 20 proposals including the Health department's proposal for implementation of a revised Nirmal healthcare scheme covering 1,864 health institutions of the State. The expanded Nirmal (strengthening of ancillary services in public health facilities) scheme launched in 2018, will now cover all tertiary health systems.
The decision assumes significance in view of the Covid- 19 pandemic and growing fear of contracting coronavirus among public visiting hospitals. While 1,812 Government run hospitals in districts including 384 community health centres and 1,364 primary health centres will be covered under Nirmal, 45 health institutions covering four new medical college and hospitals, nine Ayush college and hospitals, 32 nursing schools and aolleges and their hostels will be covered under Nirmal+.
Nirmal++ will be implemented in seven tertiary public health facilities covering three old medical colleges and hospitals in Cuttack, Berhampur and Burla and three major hospitals located in Cuttack - Acharya Harihar Post Graduate Institute for Cancer, Shishu Bhawan and Mental Health Institute.
The revised scheme will be implemented for a period of five years with a budget estimate of Rs 1,998.15 crore, of which Rs 1,874.27 crore will be provided by the State while the balance Rs 123.88 crore will be sourced from the National Health Mission, Tripathy said.
The Cabinet also approved four packages of mega drinking water projects worth Rs 800.27 crore to be implemented in six districts. An additional 6.07 lakh population in 911 villages of Koraput, Malkangiri, Gajapati, Cuttack, Balasore and Mayurbhanj districts will be benefited by the projects.
The four mega pipe water supply projects are expected to cover around 10.4 lakh population by 2052. Tripathy said the State Government has planned to take up drinking water projects worth Rs 26,000 crore in the coming three years to ensure 100 per cent household coverage under tap water connection.
Cabinet approves tender for Gangadhar Meher LI project
Drinking water supply in rural areas being the top priority, the Chief Secretary said the Government has taken up projects worth Rs 24,100 crore in the last three years. As many as 6,800 small and 66 mega projects covering 48 per cent of the population is under execution. T
he Cabinet also gave post-facto approval to the decisions taken by the empowered group of ministers (EGOM) from time to time for procurement of medical equipments, finalisation of price for COVID-19 testing and fixation of rates for RTPCR test by private laboratories.
As the Assembly is not in session, the Cabinet approved necessary amendments made to the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 to regulate non-compliance of COVID guidelines by promulgation of an ordinance.