The State Government of Friday asked Divisional Forest Officers, field-level Revenue Officers, Executive Engineers and implementing agencies to expedite National Highway development projects by dealing forest diversion, utility shifting, land acquisition and compensation issues proactively.
Union Transport and Highways Secretary Vijay Chhiber and Chief Secretary GC Pati issued this direction while reviewing the progress of NH projects taken up in Odisha at a meeting held here. The NH Chief Engineer has been asked to submit weekly report on the progress of
the projects.
It was revealed that the NHAI is developing roads covering 1,912 km out of 4,644 km passing in the State under 22 NHs. Till now, the NHAI has developed 521 kms of road under NHDP Phase-I. Similarly, development of 617 km roads have been taken up under NHDP, Phase-III and V and the balance of 1233 km roads under the NPDP, Phase- IV and V.
The projects under implementation include six-laning of Bhubaneswar-Chandikhol( NH-5, 67 km), four-laning of Bhubaneswar-Puri, (NH-203, 67 km) and four-laning of Sambalpur-Bargarh (NH-6, 88 km).
Besides, around 3,055 km of NH roads under 35 projects are being developed through State PWDA. Of these, 14 projects have been completed by January 2015.
A total number of 183 projects, including 21 bridge projects, worth Rs Rs 923.90 crore had been sanctioned under the Central Road Fund Work. Of these, 168 projects have been completed.
The meeting also reviewed 16 other roads having economic and inter-state connectivity importance. They include Nuapada-Bangamunda (NH-217), Bhoajpur- Chhatabar (NH-200) and Nabarangpur-Koksara(NH-201).
