State high-level committee to meet on Thursday to discuss progress of infrastructure projects

Puducherry to review infrastructure projects, incl. water supply, sewerage & road improvement, at State High Level Committee meeting. Projects costing over ₹3cr to be discussed, incl. water supply schemes, cement road improvements & Smart City initiatives. Govt. facing criticism for delays in execution of projects.

Infrastructure projects, including those to augment drinking water supply, providing proper sewerage network and road improvement work, will come up for review during a meeting of the State High Level Committee convened on Thursday.

The meeting would take up for review a report prepared by the Project Management Unit (PMU), set up under the aegis of Department of Finance and Planning, to monitor the ongoing infrastructure projects under Centrally-Sponsored Schemes, Central sector and those funded through negotiated loans and by financial institutions.

The Planning and Research Department had constituted a five-member State High Level Committee in August to review progress of all infrastructure projects in the Union Territory that cost over ₹3 crore on a bi-monthly basis. The Committee is headed by the Development Commissioner-cum-Finance Secretary.

“The Committee will be meeting on Thursday to discuss the report given by PMU. The team from PMU had inspected work sites of around 15 projects. We will be discussing the observations made by the team and recommend ways for speedy implementation of the projects. Such meetings, apart from helping the government in speedy execution of the projects through coordinated efforts, will also help in avoiding arbitration,” a senior official told The Hindu.

Some of the projects that will come up for review included the HUDCO-funded water supply schemes at Sudhana Nagar, Dr. Dhanabalan Nagar, Gandhi Thirunallar in Zone VII of Muthirapalayam, Viswanathan Nagar Zone-II and TB Sanatorium Campus in Gorimedu. The meeting would also discuss work to provide improvement to cement road in the town area by providing drainage facility to Kennedy Nagar and to Santhi Nagar outer road.

The projects under Smart City mission, including the progress of work at Dubrayapet STP, will also come for discussion, the official said adding several other important infrastructure programmes of the government will be reviewed.

The government has been facing severe criticism for delay in execution of infrastructure projects with certain works not having been completed for over a decade.