File picture of Paradip coast devastated by cyclone in 1999

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 8: Unavailability of “eligible contractors” has led to slow progress in executing various projects in the state under the National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project for which the World Bank had sanctioned Rs 567 crore.

Managing director of the Odisha State Disaster Management Authority Bichitrananda Das said: “We are not getting eligible contractors to get the work done.”

The state government, which is to build shelter homes and approach roads with the bank’s assistance, has been able to complete 20 of the scheduled 249 projects and spent 4 per cent of the allocated funds in 2010-11.

Expressing concern at the state government’s work pace, the bank, in a letter, a copy of which is available with The Telegraph, said the progress in awarding contracts for various projects in the cyclone-prone areas was moving “very slowly”.

Moreover, the bank is yet to receive the list of projects meant to be executed during the current calendar year. The state has to draw the list with proper surveys and designs and submit it to the agency for approval.

The bank has also raised the issue of staff crunch in the state government departments, which are supposed to execute the projects.

In a related development, the government has decided to abandon its ambitious Sambhav project, which was to set up communication hubs at 2,450 vulnerable coastal villages for cyclones and early Tsunami warnings.

On October 29, 2010, chief minister Naveen Patnaik launched the project in the capital.

The project aimed to create “a foolproof, two-way, real time communication system”, which would provide proactive information on impending disasters. It was to be managed remotely by the State Emergency Centre, which would have been linked to all cyclone centres.

According to the plans, the government was to start the system at two districts — Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur.

However, Das said: “Later, we have realised that the scheme would not be viable and serve its purpose. We have decided to stop the programme.”

“There is a complete chaos in disaster management. One will see its repercussion only when a natural disaster hits the coastal belt,” said a senior official of the revenue and disaster department.

“It is not that the Sambhav project has been shelved. The governing body of the management authority has not met for the past three years. The chief secretary is the chairman. The governing body is supposed to chalk out plans and gear up the administration to meet a crisis,” said another official.

Sources said that because of lack of initiative, the state had also failed to spend Rs 5 crore allocated each year for capacity building of its staff members.