By IANS,
Bhubaneswar : The rural development ministry has approved road and bridge projects worth Rs.1,067 crore for Odisha, official sources said here Wednesday.
The projects will be implemented under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana with support from the Asian Development Bank. They include 343 road works covering 1,184 km and 140 long-span bridges.
The road works would cost Rs.584 crore while Rs.483 crore would be spent on the construction of bridges, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh informed Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik via a letter Tuesday.
Ramesh stated that Odisha was yet to complete 2,048 road works out of the sanctioned issued till March 2011.
“Unless the state enhances its contracting capacity and executional capacity of the contractors, the desired progress with respect to speed and quality cannot be achieved,” Ramesh said in the letter, a copy of which is with IANS.
The ministry will send its joint secretary with a team to the state to meet state officials and contractors to resolve issues, Ramesh stated.
“The state is yet to financially close 1,000 works on account of pending final bill clearances,” Ramesh said.