The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), which administers the Central Road Fund (CRF) has informed the State Government of sanctioning Rs 136.63 crore for several road projects, which were waiting for approval of the Ministry.
The Department of Works (DoW) was informed by the MoRTH on Monday about funding of 84 km of roads from the CRF, said official sources.
These projects include widening and improvement of the roads of Visakhapatnam-Jeypore, Anantapur-Soro-Kupari, Nayagarh-Khandapada, Hatibari-Biramitrapur-Raiboga-Salangabahal, G Udayagiri-Paburia-Sarangagada, Bargarh-Bhatli-Ambabuna and Dharamgarh-Golamunda-Sinapali.
With MoRTH stipulating a timeline of two years for completion of the projects, the DoW would certainly adhere to the ddeadline, said the sources.
In 2010-11, the State Government had approached the MoRTH with 18 proposals involving an amount of Rs 360 crore, but the Ministry had sanctioned eight of them worth Rs 160 crore.
In 2011-12, the DoW scaled down its demand approaching with 11 projects worth Rs 220 crore under the CRF. However, the MoRTH had not sanctioned a single one. In 2012-13 too, the State failed to receive any funds.
Since the launching of the CRF in 2001-02 to fund road projects of various States, Odisha has received Rs 556 crore, said the sources.Under this scheme, the MoRTH provides 50 per cent of funds while the rest is borne by the State Governments as matching grants.