The State Government on Saturday directed the concerned departments to undertake construction of roads and saline embankments by November.
The directive was give by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik while reviewing the progress of the works under the National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project (NCRMP) here. The World Bank-aided `653.8-crore NCRMP is being implemented in six coastal districts of Puri, Jagatsinghpur, Baleswar, Bhadrak, Ganjam and Kendrapada.
A target was fixed to construct 149 cyclone shelters, six godowns, 134 roads measuring 175.33 km and 10 saline embankments of 61.88 km between 2010-11 and 2014-15. It was revealed that only one cyclone shelter has been completed and works on all other projects are in progress. The Chief Minister directed the Revenue Department to complete all the cyclone shelters by March 2014. The NCRMP aims at strengthening structural and nonstructural mitigation efforts towards reducing risk and vulnerability of the coastal districts.
The Centre has till date released Rs 74 crore for the project and the State has added Rs 30 crore. Out of this, Rs 57 crore has been utilised till date for the project scheduled to be closed in March 2015.
Among others, Revenue and Disaster Management Minister SN Patro, Chief Secretary JK Mohapatra, Development Commissioner I Srinivas and senior officials of the concerned departments were present at the meeting.