SAMBALPUR: Even as four years have passed since construction of Odisha Adarsha Vidyalayas (OAV) began across nine blocks of the district, none of the schools has been completed yet.
Different firms were awarded construction work of the OAVs in Bamra, Dhankauda, Jamankira, Jujumura, Kuchinda, Maneswar, Naktideul, Rairakhol and Rengali blocks in 2015.
While the schools at Bamra, Jujumura and Kuchinda were supposed to be handed over to the district administration by April, 2019, the remaining schools are to be opened in April this year. However, considering the pace of work, that seems unlikely.
Construction of the building in Rairakhol block was stopped after the Rural Works division found that a part of the identified land is under the possession of the Forest department for which, it has not given clearance so far.
Recently, the Rural Development department again requested the DFO of Rairakhol division to give clearance for the portion of land. Likewise, in OAV at Pentabahal of Naktideul block, only plinth work of the building has been completed so far.
Besides, the construction of OAV in Jujumura block and that at Badsinghari of Dhankauda block is halfway through as the finishing works of the ground floor is underway.
Similarly, at Kusumi under Kuchinda block and Chinimahul of Jamankira block, finishing work of the ground floor is going on alongside construction of the first floor.
The rest of the three OAVs at Parmanur in Maneswar, Govindpur in Bamra and Rengali block are close to completion and a few PH works are pending.
The existing school buildings in these blocks are either partly damaged or in dilapidated state. Officials of the Rural Works division put the blame on the firms for delay.
They said the Rural Works division had written to the nine firms twice in the last one year to speed up the work, but they have remained non-committal.
On February 7, the Collector Shubham Saxena issued a show cause to executive engineer of Rural Works division, Sambalpur, seeking reason behind the slow progress of work.
In response, the executive engineer stated that while most of the buildings will be handed over to the administration by March-end, the buildings of Jamankira, Kuchinda and Naktideul blocks would be handed over in May, June and August respectively. Work on the school at Rairakhol block would be resumed only after land clearance is received.