Bhubaneswar: A week after the announcement of Gangadhar Meher Lift Canal System for poll bound Bijepur in Bargarh district, the Cabinet in-principle approved the project Monday.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik presided over Monday’s Cabinet meeting.
After the session agriculture minister Damodar Rout told the media: “This lift irrigation project will provide irrigation facilities to 32,000 hectares of land in three blocks of Bargarh district. While 19,000 hectares of land will be irrigated in Bijepur, 8,000 in Sohela and 5,000 in Barpali will also get water supply from the project,”
Claiming it is a unique project in entire Asia, the minister said, “It will improve agricultural output in the area. Tender process for the project in this regard will be completed within March.”
“It is an old project started in 2011-12 and detailed survey and other formalities have been completed,” Rout added.
However, Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi said that it is a new project and will be implemented with an investment of Rs 1,246 crore. The irrigation project will be completed within a period of five years.
The cabinet also approved contract of a sewerage project for Bhubaneswar’s sewerage district-II (mostly comprising old town areas), Padhi said.
“The project work was earlier awarded to Chennai-based East Coast Construction Industries Ltd which couldn’t execute it properly following which the contract was terminated,” the Chief Secretary said, adding that the Rs 173 crore-project has now been awarded to Ahmedabad-based Laxmi Construction and July, 2020 has been set as the estimated target for the completion of work.
The third item on the agenda of the Cabinet meeting was the proroguing of the last assembly session which happened to be a routine exercise,” the chief secretary remarked.
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