Imphal, July 20: The North Eastern Development Finance Corporation Ltd (NEDFi) will now monitor and evaluate development projects taken up in Manipur with financial assistance from the Centre.

It will act as a third party monitoring body for the projects and submit its report to central authorities.

An official source said the state government had signed an MoU with NEDFi on July 16 to evaluate the implementation of nine projects taken up with funds from the Centre. The state planning department has asked all the heads of state government departments that are implementing the nine projects, worth Rs 46.71 crore, to assist NEDFi officials in their assessment.

The Centre had provided funds for the nine projects through special plan assistance, non-lapsable central pool of resources and the North Eastern Council. These projects include improvement of roads around Lamphelpat here, where a cluster of government quarters and Games Village are located, and in the hills, construction of outposts for village defence forces, improvement of school infrastructure and construction of power sub-stations and bridges. The source said NEDFi officials would make spot verification of the progress of the projects, that is whether they are running as scheduled and whether those completed were on time, as well as the quality of work. They would also assess how the schemes benefit people in the areas, rural and urban, where they were taken up.

The move comes after the Centre gave firm instructions to the Okram Ibobi Singh government for third party monitoring, as most of the projects in Manipur were not completed on time, sources said. It also comes in the wake of a visit by a DoNER team, headed by secretary Jayati Chandra, last month to review state development projects.

Though Chandra told reporters that the state government had “improved” its performance, official sources said the team expressed its desire for better implementation of the projects by government departments.

Union minister for social justice and empowerment Mukul Wasnik, during his two-day visit here earlier this month, was also “not satisfied” with the projects taken up by the state social welfare department. The sources said the Centre felt that the state being in an earthquake-prone zone, building of infrastructure should be proper and of good quality to avoid disasters. The deputy chairman of the state planning board, Bijoy Koijam, however, said third party involvement was to ensure that the projects were implemented on time as any delay proved costlier.