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The Odisha government has set the ball rolling for online review of industrial and infrastructure projects with investments in the range of Rs 50-1,000 crore.
The monitoring system is modelled on the lines of a project monitoring group (PMG) of the Cabinet secretariat of Government of India where projects with investments exceeding Rs 1,000 crore are vetted.
Presently, projects entailing an investment of more than Rs 1,000 crore are being reviewed by the chief secretary and Cabinet Secretariat under the CCI (Cabinet Committee on Infrastructure)-PMG framework with the objective of fast tracking approvals and clearances. The projects are from diverse sectors- steel, aluminium, power, oil refinery, railways, ports and mining.
“The chief secretary has advised that a similar monitoring mechanism may be put in place for investment projects in the state. The online project monitoring system (PMS) of CCI-PMG may be adopted for the purpose. Project proponents, both public and private sector entities, would be required to upload their issues on the online PMS and update the same. The management of the online PMS may be vested with industries department and Industrial Promotion & Investment Corporation of Odisha Ltd (Ipicol),” Pradeep Kumar Jena, special secretary, planning & coordination wrote to Vishal Dev, secretary (industries).
“Once the PMS is hosted on the state government website, appropriate communication and user manual may be issued, apprising all concerned about the system and the mechanism. Projects can then be reviewed at different administrative levels using the online PMS,” the letter added.
The Cabinet Secretariat of the Centre has offered to train the officials on the operation and management of the online PMS.
The CCI in February had urged the state government to constitute a PMG at state level to oversee small investment projects.
So far, the Cabinet Secretariat’s PMG has reviewed the status of large investment projects in Odisha thrice.
Projects that have gone under the PMG’s scanner include the smelter plant of Aditya Aluminium Ltd, proposed expansion of Vedanta Aluminum’s Lanjigarh refinery, Paradeep refinery and Paradeep-Ranchi-Raipur pipeline of Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL), power plants of Lanco Babandh, Jindal India Thermal Power Ltd (JITPL) and KVK Nilachal Power and steel projects proposed by Jindal Steel & Power Ltd (JSPL), Monnet Ispat & Energy Ltd, Visa Steel and Essar Steel.
The PMG has also vetted the progress of rail link projects like Paradeep-Haridaspur, Talcher-Bimlagarh and Angul-Sukinda.
