Odisha Works Minister Prithviraj Harichandan instructed officials to make sure that roads throughout the state that have been damaged by landslides, floods, and excessive rainfall are repaired right away. The Nakhara-Niali and Adaspur-Jagatsinghpur sections, the Kalinga Ghati road, and the roads in Koraput, Bhadrak, Balasore, Kataka Town, Ganjam, Sambalpur, Kendujhar, and Paradip were among the damaged roads that Harichandan examined while presiding over a high-level review meeting at Lok Seva Bhawan here.
The Minister stated that there would be no compromise on road quality and that the state government was responsible for guaranteeing adequate road connectivity. He instructed officials to finish repairs right away after seeing images and stories of damaged roadways making the rounds on social media. Additionally, Harichandan directed Chief Engineers, Superintending Engineers, Junior Engineers, and Engineers-in-Chief to conduct routine road inspections and submit condition reports every fifteen days. Additionally, they were instructed to stay on site throughout construction and keep an eye on the caliber of the work.
The Minister also directed departmental authorities to file lawsuits against contractor organizations that were deemed to have subpar work. Sanjay Kumar Singh, principal secretary of the Works Department, emphasized the necessity of accelerating and improving the transparency of the procurement process. Additionally, he examined ways to enhance the functionality and usefulness of WIMIS software and instructed officials to avoid needless file processing delays.
Chief Engineers and Superintending Engineers from different zones attended the meeting both in person and virtually, along with EIC and Special Secretary Sameer Hota, Engineer-in-Chief (Civil) Satyabrata Behera, Financial Advisor and Special Secretary Ratikanta Mohapatra, Additional Secretaries Deepak Ranjan Das and Pradeep Kumar Sahu.
