The Cabinet Committee’s Project Monitoring Group (PMG) reviewed progress of a host of ongoing railway, National Highway, coalmine, steel and power generation projects in Odisha at a CCI-PMG meeting here presided over by Chief Secretary GC Pati on Monday. Around 40 projects were reviewed and the issues raised by project proponents were resolved in the meeting. The Chief Secretary directed field level Forest and Revenue officials to take proactive steps for fastening the grounding of investment projects. The project proponents were asked to take possession of land already handed over so that further encroachment does not take place and expedite implementation, fulfill rehabilitation commitments and CSR obligations.
The Chief Secretary also directed for stringent action against the habitual trouble makers who obstruct the work under one or the other pretext. The Forest and Environment Department was told to identify 10,000 hectares of degraded forest land and keep these in land bank for compensatory afforestation against the forest diversions done for railway, NH and coal mine projects. Pati directed the Forest Department to move to the Centre for constitution of regional forest and environment committee for quicker decision on diversion proposals.
Issues relating to forest diversion, alignment of roads, disbursement of compensation, laying of underground pipe line, felling of trees, social implication studies, DGPS survey, land acquisition, taking possession of the acquired land by the project developers, Forest Rights Act and NOC, etc. raised by the project proponents were discussed and resolved. The major projects like Jharsuguda-Barpalli-Sardega railway line, Jharsuguda-Rengali doubling, Talcher-Bimlagarh new railway line, Angul-Sukinda new line project, Angul -Sambalpur Toll Road project, Cuttack- Angul Toll way Project, Birmitrapur Barkote Highway, Panikholi-Rimoi NH, the projects of Mahanadi Coalfields limited (MCl) viz. Kulda opencast project (OCP), Siarmal OCP, Balaram OCP, Kulda OCP, lakhanpur OCP, Bhubaneswar OCP, Jagannath OCP, Bharatpur OCP, lingaraj OCP, Hingula OCP, Gopalprasad OCP, Samaleswari OCP, Talabira OCP, Nataraj underground mine, Hingula OCP, MJSJ Coal, Gopalprasad, Kaniha OCP, Ananta Extension OCP, Garjanbahal OCP, IOCl Project viz. augmentation of Paradip-Haldia-Barauni pipeline, Paradip-Durgapur lPG pipeline, Paradip-Raipur-Ranchi pipeline, VISA thermal power plant, Sahara India Power Corporation., PKTCl Power Transmission Company, Monnet Power Company limited, Tentulei Thermal Power Project, lanco Babandh Power limited, Odisha Ultra Mega Power Project, KVK, Nilachal Power limited, Jindal Stainless, VISA Steel, SMC Power Generation, JSPl Angul project, Essar Steel India, Bhushan Steel, CRNO project and Anandapur Barrage project were reviewed.