BHUBANESWAR: The Board of Directors of Odisha Mineral Bearing Areas Development Corporation (OMBADC) on Monday sanctioned projects worth Rs 640.65 crore for development of secondary schools, construction of indoor stadiums and environmental monitoring across the State.
A meeting of the OMBADC Board chaired by Chief Secretary S C Mahapatra accorded in-principle approval for development of 889 secondary schools in Angul, Dhenkanal, Deogarh, Jajpur, Jharsuguda, Mayurbhaj and Sundargarh districts at an estimated cost of Rs 533.40 crore. The proposal for development of multi-purpose indoor stadiums estimated at Rs 104.15 crore in eleven ULBs of mining affected districts was also sanctioned. These include municipalities of Belpahar, Brajrajnagar, Anandpur, Barbil, Birmitrapur, Rajganjpur, Rourkela, Joda and Vyasnagar along with two NACs of Champua and Udala.
The facilities are aimed at nurturing and promoting sports talents in the ULBs and their adjacent areas, said OMBADC CEO Uma Nanduri. Since smart classroom, e-library, science lab and ICT lab would be developed as part of the new project, the Chief Secretary exhorted teachers to focus on imparting best education to the students with global exposure and enable them to compete at national and international levels. He further directed the department concerned to make best use of the sporting facilities for nurturing and promotion of talents in mining districts.
The project on application of ICT and data science for development of environmental information system in the mining areas of Odisha estimated at Rs 3.10 crore envisages development of a comprehensive database on periodic environmental data collected from mines through different statutory returns, clearances and compliances. Nanduri said the data generated will be used for curtailing pollution and decision-making activities regarding mining operations.