Bhubaneswar: The municipal corporation will set up three project monitoring units in its three zonal offices to have in place a decentralised mechanism to keep tabs on various ongoing and completed projects in the city.

The plan is to provide assistance to the officials for timely completion of the projects and maintain the completed projects simultaneously. Respective units will look after roads, drains, parks and others under their jurisdiction.

"We have already set up such a monitoring unit at our headquarters and it is performing a similar duty in a city-wide manner. The existing unit will continue to work and as part of the new plan, we have decided to decentralised the process and set up respective units to bring more inclusiveness," said a civic official.

Each of the units will have one team co-ordinator, one accountant and two data entry operators. They will have separate office spaces and additionally look after management of key business areas of the zone, accounting and record keeping, social welfare and housing management among others.

The city is now divided into three zones - north, southeast and southwest.

"We are already performing well with the zone offices. It helps us to provide better services to the people. We need to continue delivering good service and this is why we decided to strengthen zone offices in this manner," said mayor Ananta Narayan Jena.

In absence of proper monitoring mechanism, many minor and major projects of the civic body are hanging fire. With the project monitoring units in place, the civic body is aiming to deliver timely services and work to the people.

"There is always a need of a proper monitoring mechanism," said Jena.

Patia resident Rita Sethi, a retired schoolteacher, said: "The civic body only makes promises about big projects and lays foundation stones but when it comes to execution, nothing happens. They should overcome hurdles through proper planning and execute the projects."