Chief minister Naveen Patnaik and secretary of economic affairs department Aravind Mayaram at the review meet in Bhubaneswar on Saturday. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, Nov. 9: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik today asked the Centre to consider a new venture to support public-private partnership (PPP) projects in the state.

The chief minister said there was much scope and opportunity for growth of the PPP projects in the state. He said: “The department should consider a new project to support PPP projects in Odisha. A line of support is provided to the State Viability Grant Fund for taking up more projects in social sectors such as health care, education and new areas such as rural roads, rural drinking and water supply.”

Naveen, who was addressing a PPP nodal officers review meeting here today, said the state envisaged an investment of around Rs 10,000 crore under the externally aided projects (EAPs), a part of the PPP projects, which mainly focus on infrastructure sectors such as roads, irrigation and urban development.

He hoped that the proposal for improvement of particularly primitive vulnerable tribal groups (PVTG) posed to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a specialised agency of the United Nations, for 85 million US dollar would be approved shortly.

Secretary of the economic affairs department Aravind Mayaram said: “India has emerged as the largest PPP market, and it is quite encouraging that Odisha is implementing projects worth Rs 13,000 crore in public infrastructure within a very short period.”

He said: “Odisha is implementing energy-saving street lighting in PPP mode, which is quite innovative and a model for replication in other states. Now, there is a need to move forward with contract management and regular monitoring of concession agreements.”

Chief secretary Jugal Kishore Mohapatra said: “The PPP projects will be helpful not only in mobilising investments, but also in improvement of efficiency in implementation and delivery of services.”

Special secretary of the PPP and project monitoring Pradeep Kumar Jena said that of 100 finalised projects in various sectors such as health care, education, water supply, water housing, urban, tourism, power transmission, roads and ports, 26 projects worth more than Rs 13,000 crore were under implementation.