Thiruvananthapuram: Keralam Public Works Department Minister P K Basheer on Thursday said that no projects will be delayed following implementation of the expert panel report on KIIFB as the PWD will complete them in an expedited and time-bound manner.
Basheer said that once the panel's recommendations to wind up the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) and absorb its functions into the state government are implemented, the Public Works Department (PWD) will go back to its past glory.
He was responding to queries, during the question hour, by CPI(M) MLAs P Mammikutty, Saji Cheriyan and Xavier Chittilappilly on whether the expert panel's report will impact the major projects of the PWD and whether development works being implemented with KIIFB funding will be stalled due to lack of money.
Assuring the opposition not to be concerned, the minister said that various development projects undertaken by KIIFB were delayed as it had no long-term view.
He said that projects delayed due to KIIFB will now be taken up and completed by the PWD in a time-bound manner.
"The government will find the funds. No PWD projects will be reduced or curtailed. No work has been stalled. You (opposition) need not be concerned," he asserted.
Basheer further said that when KIIFB came, the motor vehicle tax and fuel cess were lost to PWD and it was turned into a mere implementing agency.
"With the PWD now getting the freedom to take decisions, slow-moving projects will be completed speedily in record time. It will carry out development works in a much better way than KIIFB and will also initiate new projects," he added.
Besides recommending winding up of KIIFB and absorbing its functions into the government, the panel, headed by retired IAS officer Sudha Pillai and constituted to review KIIFB's functioning, had flagged alleged financial irregularities and procedural lapses in the Board's acquisition of land for industrial infrastructure projects.
Based on the panel's report, the Keralam government had on Wednesday ordered a vigilance probe into the alleged irregularities in land acquisition by the KIIFB in Kannur during the previous LDF government's tenure.