The State Annual Action Plan (SAAP) of 2016-17 for nine AMRUT cities, comprising 143 projects worth Rs 537 crore, got in-principle approval of the State
High Powered Steering Committee (SHPSC) meeting held under the Chairmanship of Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi on Friday
here.
Taking stock of the preparedness for implementation of the projects, the Chief Secretary asked the department to expedite the utilisation of the funds and avail the incentive grant. Housing and Urban Development Secretary G Mathivathanan said that incentive up to 10 per cent of the total
project value would be available for progress of the projects as per the milestones set in it.
Chief Secretary Padhi further advised the department to conduct energy and water audit in all the AMRUT cities. H and UD Special Secretary-cum-Odisha Urban Infrastructure Development Fund (OUIDF) Secretary Sisir Kumar Ratho
presented the projects and outlined the issues for discussion.
It may be pertinent here to mention that these 143 projects for the mission cities of Odisha under AMRUT were worked out through a long course of consultation and consensus from city to State level in four phases, including consultation meetings with concerned MPs, MlAs, Mayors and Chairpersons. The projects will be submitted to Government for onward transmission to Government of India. Special Secretary Ratho said that the funding pattern of the project would be on 50:50 cost sharing basis between the Central and State Governments. Besides, the State or concerned UlB would make appropriate cost recovery mechanism for operation and management of the projects.
The approved projects include 91 water supply projects worth Rs 487 crore , four sewerage and septage management projects worth Rs 20.55 crore and 48 other projects including parks worth Rs 22.85 crore. These projects would be implemented in the cities like Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Puri, Brahmapur, Rourkela, Sambalpur, Baleswar, Bhadrak and Baripada.
In the meanwhile, the UlBs and public health engineers have been trained and the capacity building at UlB level has already been taken up for expeditious implementation of the projects. So far 239 engineers, town planners and executive officers have been trained. Exposure visits have been organised for 33 elected representatives from AMRUT towns.
Training for additional 270 officials and exposure visit for 60 elected representatives have been planned for this year. AMRUT accounting procedure has also been approved by AG Odisha. With all these, nine AMRUT cities of the State are now all set for speedy implementation of the projects, said a senior officer of the department.