By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR: Belying speculations, that he is confining himself within the limits of State Capital Bhubaneswar, Pilgrimage City of Puri and Millennium City of Cuttack, Odisha Works Department Secretary and one of the most trusted mandarins of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Dr Krishan Kumar, an IAS officer of 2002 batch, hailing from Haryana’s Rohtak, finally ventured into field visits, which sent a shockwave among corrupted Engineers, Contractors and Middlemen.
Dr Kumar reviewed the progress of Biju Expressway from Rourkela to Sambalpur, which is being developed by State PWD. “Biju Expressway from Rourkela to Sambalpur is developed by @PWD_Odisha on PPP Model at Total Project Cost of more than 1500 Cr. The concessionaire for project is @LNTIDPL. The project shows commitment of Odisha Govt for developing Best-in-Class road infrastructure & provide investment climate for private sector. Works Department team visited the road & state-of-art toll plaza. This transformation is result of Hon’ble CM’s vision of providing seamless connectivity in western Odisha to spur balanced regional economic development #5T,” Works Department, Odisha tweeted @PWD_Odisha.
Biju Expressway is a dual carriageway in the Indian state of Odisha, with a total length of 650 km. It starts at Chandili (border village in Koraput district) and goes on to touch border towns/market centres such as Kotpad, Boriguma, Nabarangpur, Papadahandi, Ambapani, Gadbhanga, Dharmagarh, Sinapalli, Bhella, Nuapada, Paikamal, Padampur, Sohela, Sambalpur, Jharsuguda, Sundargarh before ending at Rourkela. The main expressway is between Vedvyas and Sambalpur. The Biju Expressway contains three toll gates. The first one is 6 km before Rajgangpur Bypass.The second tollgate is at Masunikani and the third gate is at Rengali. The maximum capable speed limit of L&T SRTL (Larsen & Toubro Sambalpur Rourkela Tollway Limited) is 160 km/h between the 163km stretch from Vedvas to Rengali.
Few days back, Dr Kumar, along with Chief Engineer and other senior officials of the department visited Kendrapada district to review the progress of ongoing construction work of a mother and childcare hospital at Shyamagudi that has been started with an estimated cost of Rs 110 crore.
Besides, they had also accessed the ongoing construction work of the District Headquarters Hospital (DHH) building and Infection unit building work. Dr Kumar showed his displeasure at the slow progress of the construction works and directed to complete the project within the existing deadline, set by the State Government earlier. Later, Krishan Kumar had paid a visit to a bridge construction site at Govari river and also visited the Baladevjew temple to see the progress work.
Sources said since Dr Kumar taken the baton of Works Department, some erring Engineers and Contractors are facing tough time. “Even some Engineers regularly spreading rumours against the IAS officer as their breed and butter from corruption empire has been stopped,” sources said.
The State Government had appointed an IAS officer in place of an Engineer as Secretary to streamline the functioning of the Works Department, which is responsible for construction, repair and maintenance of buildings, roads, bridges and other related structures financed from the State and capital budget allocations and since then Dr Kumar has been working hard to put things into normalcy.
The Chief Minister’s vision to make the projects like the beautification of Grand Road, Puri Jagananth Temple, the Lingaraj Temple, Cuttack SCB Medical College Hospital and other projects world class are on right track, besides several major road projects like Biju Expressway.
Earlier some media reports had alleged that Odisha Government’s Works Department have turned into a corruption shed for Contractors and Engineers with Department Secretary Dr Krishan Kumar keeping himself busy with 5T Secretary VK Pandian and Development Commissioner Suresh Mohapatra for Temple and periphery development in pilgrimage City of Puri and as well as in Temple City of Bhubaneswar or sometime at Konark which houses Black Pagoda.
Dr Kumar, who holds additional charge of Chief Administrator of Puri’s Shree Jagannath Temple Administration , and Chairman Puri-Konark Development Authority, was frequently seen either in State Capital , in Puri or in Konark but there was no field visit to inspect various big projects taken up by the Works Department. “ Many Contractors are making false bills and drawing huge amount with help of Engineers due to inactiveness of Department Secretary and now Dr Kumar making frequent field visits to take stock of ground realities will yield some results,” sources said.
