Bhubaneswar: Four more semi-urban areas will be taken up under Rurban (rural-urban) Mission in Odisha.

An estimated Rs 305.65 crore will be invested to develop the areas.

This amount will be invested through four Integrated Cluster Development Plans designed for each area.

The new areas selected for development under the mission are Puttasingh in Rayagada district, Marichmal in Koraput district, Kuarmunda in Sundargarh district and Raibania in Balasore district.

These four clusters cover 20 gram panchayats where urban development activities will be taken up.

It was envisaged that projects worth Rs 230.34 crore would be implemented through convergence of various programmes and schemes. The remaining balance amount of around Rs 75.30 crore would be provided by the central and state governments on 60:40 sharing basis as critical gap funding.

The decisions were taken at the meeting of the state-level empowered committee, headed by chief secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi.

The recommendations of the committee would be sent to the central government for its final approval.

Padhi directed the officials to focus on new income-generating avenues and sustainable livelihood supporting activities in each cluster. He asked them to prioritise the projects for enhancing basic service delivery. The action plans for these areas were designed keeping in view the development of well-planned rurban clusters in future.

Panchayati raj secretary D.K. Singh said earlier, 10 semi-urban and peri-urban areas were included under Rurban Mission in two phases. The development of the four new areas would be taken up in phase-III of the mission.

The projects for economic infrastructure, skill development, establishment of agro-processing units, inter-village connectivity, pipe-water supply, irrigation, solid waste management, digital connectivity, street lights, sanitation, sustainable livelihood, health services, citizen service centre and LPG connections would be undertaken in these areas.

"These clusters will be developed as rurban villages preserving the nature and essence of rural community life with urban facilities," said mission leader Pranab Jyoti Nath.

State nodal officer of the mission Swayamprava Mohanty said: "Each cluster will be developed and managed as one planning area."