Bhubaneswar, Nov. 3: The Odisha government has urged the Centre to expedite a process to approve a project for setting up the National Wetland and Coastal Ecosystem Research and Training Centre in Bhubaneswar.

The state has already identified two acres for the purpose.

During his recent visit to New Delhi, Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik met Union minister for environment and forests Jayanti Natarajan and requested her to accelerate the process of establishing the centre.

The proposed centre would provide technical and field-level support for better ecological balance in the Chilika lake and help in developing other wetlands and coastal ecosystems along the Odisha coast.

Natarajan, however, informed Naveen that her ministry had already given its nod to the project and the ball was now in the court of the Planning Commission, whose approval was also required.

The chief minister informed Natarajan that his government had submitted an additional annual plan with a proposal to utilise Rs 325 crore from the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority fund. He also requested the Union minister to sanction funds for a period of five years.

Sources said the state had also decided to strengthen the van surakshya samitis. ‘

Initially Odisha was planning to strengthen 5,000 samitis under the Ama Jungle Yojana for a period of five years from 2011-12 to 2015-16 with the aim to protect and manage degraded and regenerated forests through a participatory approach.

Interestingly, the Centre has demanded from the state data on geographic information system-based mapping coordinates for authentic inputs on the work undertaken in the field of forestry.