Bhubaneswar, July 23: New chief secretary Jugal Kishore Mohapatra of Odisha has issued guidelines to secretaries on the areas they should focus on.

Bilateral issues between departments should be normally resolved through inter-departmental consultations and only complex issues should be brought to him, he said.

The chief secretary, who took charge in the first week of July, has maintained that departments should address the problems relating to land acquisition, resettlement and rehabilitation regulations, clearance and raw material linkages for stalled projects.

Most of the big-tickets projects in the state are facing the problem of land acquisition.

Mohapatra said the priorities are double laning of 2000km of state highways, creation of at least six lakh hectares that have irrigation potential, completion of at least 500 rural bridges, execution of two super critical power projects, facilitation of National Highways Authority of India and Samabalpur-Rourkela public private participation (PPP) projects, and execution of at least two more minor ports.

Expeditious action must be taken for Angul-Sukinda, Haridaspur-Paradip and Khurda-Balangir rail projects, he said. It has also been decided that steps would be taken to develop all airports.