A high power committee (HPC) held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary AP Padhi has approved 54 projects in nine cities under the AMRUT scheme for the 2017-18 financial year. The projects are worth `607 crore for cities like Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Brahmapur, Sambalpur, Puri, Baripada and Bhadrak.
Water supply has been accorded top priority for which about 36 projects have been approved at a cost of Rs 508 crore. This would ensure 100 per cent water supply to all the wards in the nine cities in next three years. Besides, four projects on management of drainage at a cost of `84 crore and 14 projects for development of parks and building green belt worth `15 crore have been approved by the HPC.
Notably, the Centre and the State have jointly taken up 148 projects worth `992 crore under the AMRUT scheme so far since its implementation in 2015-16. Of them tender notification has been made for 75 projects while work orders have been issued for 42 projects. Padhi instructed the officials to complete the projects as per schedule.