Bhubaneswar: Odisha has been allocated Rs.1938.33 Crore for development and maintenance of State Roads from Union Government during last five years. And there has been increase in allocation of funds during last two years.
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways allocates funds for State Governments and Union Territories (UTs) for development and maintenance of State Roads under the Central Road & Infrastructure Fund (CRIF) and Economic Importance & Interstate Connectivity (EI&ISC) Schemes.
From CRIF, Odisha has got Rs.1698.69 Crore and from EI&ISC it has received Rs.239.64 Crore from 2017-18 to 2021-22. More funds from CRIF has been received and State is utilizing funds in a big way, officials say.
While in 2017-18 CRIF funds Rs.230.54 Crore was released, in 2018-19 it came down to Rs.111.93 Crore.
In 2019-20 Rs.286.96 Crore was released, which went up to Rs.Rs.534.19 Crore in 2020-21 and in 2021-22 it went up to Rs.535.07 Crore.
State Government is taking up more infrastructure projects and making arrangements for more Capital Outlay, so that Central Funds utilization can be more,
The CRIF is earmarked for various Infrastructure Sectors such as Transport (Road and Bridges, Ports, Shipyards, Inland Waterways, Airports, Railways, Urban Public Transport), Energy, Water and Sanitation, Communication, Social and Commercial Infrastructure, etc.
MoRTH finalizes the criteria for allocation of funds for development and maintenance of State Roads for CRIF and EI & ISC Schemes in consultation with the Ministry of Finance.
Sources said that provision for allocation of funds based on 30 percentage weightage to fuel consumption and 70 percentage weightage to geographical area of the State and UT.
The Ministry, through its Regional offices, is making payments directly to the Contractors for ongoing State road projects under EI&ISC Scheme under Direct Payment Procedure (DPP) based on progress of these works and bills raised by the Contractors.