Kendrapara, March 4: Construction of the state’s first rehabilitation project for families displaced by sea erosion in the district’s Satabhaya gram panchayat has picked up pace with the June deadline approaching.

The beneficiaries have already started work on their houses. According to the proposal, 607 families, hit by tidal surges, would be settled on 132.5 acres in the Bagapatia resettlement colony.

Kendrapara collector Debraj Senapati said the majority of targeted beneficiaries had begun construction of their houses in the colony from the fiscal grants the government had allotted them. The government granted Rs 70,000 to the displaced families in phases under the Biju Pucca Ghar Scheme.

Wary of further delay in the project, the administration has set June as the deadline for implementation of the project. A section of the beneficiaries, however, were yet to start work on their houses despite receiving the grants.
Satabhaya residents have been pleading for resettlement for years as the sea is steadily approaching their settlements. An earlier project, envisaged by former chief minister Biju Patnaik in 1992, failed to take off. Days before the 2004 Assembly polls, chief minister Naveen Patnaik laid the foundation stone of the resettlement colony. However, it has taken more than a decade for the project to take shape.

“The resettlement colony will have all basic amenities. We hope it would be a model village. There would be provisions for electricity, drinking water, anganwadi centre, panchayat office, primary school, community centre, buffer embankment and playground besides ponds for pisciculture,” said an official.

“The construction of community building, anganwadi centre, primary school, digging up deep tube wells, internal and external roads to the colony are under way. Around 11KV line for electricity is also in progress. Construction on the coastal embankment, estimated to cost Rs 3 crore, to protect the area from tidal water has also begun. We are hopeful of completing the work within the stipulated timeframe.” Senapati said. “Our plan is also to relocate the Panchuvarahi temple to the resettlement colony,” he said.