Bhubaneswar, June 18: Union minister of state for statistics and programme implementation Srikant Jena today criticised the Odisha government for the delay in completion of nine infrastructure projects of the central government.

“Delay in land acquisition and environment and forest clearance are major bottlenecks in the completion of these projects. Unless the Odisha government takes proactive steps, the projects will be further delayed resulting in huge cost over-run,” said Jena.

Jena who reviewed the progress of the central infrastructure projects here today, said three national highways, three railways, two coal and a petroleum sector projects had been delayed. The average time over-run in these delayed projects was 67.77 months, he said.

Odisha development commissioner RN Senapati (left) with Srikant Jena (right) in Bhubaneswar on Monday. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

The three national highway projects come under the Golden Quadrilateral Scheme. The stretches between Ganjam – Ichhapuram, Sunakhala-Ganjam and Balasore-Bhadrak have been delayed for over 100 months.

All the three projects have been delayed because the Odisha government had not been able to sort out the land problem. “The central government has taken a policy decision that tenders would not be awarded unless land acquisition work was completed fully,” he said.

The minister also reviewed the progress of coal projects under the central public sector company, Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL). It was found that two coal projects ( Balaram open cast mines and Kulda open cast mines) were facing delays for similar reasons.

Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) project in Paradip, too, is facing hurdles. The minister will review the railwayss and petrochemical projects tomorrow.

Twenty-seven central sector infrastructure projects costing Rs 150 crore and above were under execution in Odisha. The aggregate original cost of these projects was Rs 54, 277.41 crore, which was anticipated to go up to Rs 57,448.40 crore, implying a total cost overrun of Rs 3,170.99 crore. Stating that the timely execution of central sector infrastructure projects was necessary, Jena urged the state government to provide necessary support for expediting implementation of these projects.