Guv pushes for Mihan, other infra projects

 Governor K Sankaranarayan on Thursday called for a close coordination between all state departments dealing with infrastructure for achieving higher economic growth. " A cabinet committee should monitor the progress periodically of infrastructure projects, particularly those in the sectors of power, irrigation, public works, water supply and sanitation," he said. He also mentioned that ambitious projects like Mihan in Nagpur need aggressive marketing to attract investors.

The governor was speaking at a function organized by Jeevan Pradhikaran in Mumbai to felicitate engineers from infrastructure departments of the state. Chief minister Privithviraj Chavan, deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, PWD minister Chhagan Bhujbal and other ministers, official and engineers were present on the occasion.

Touching upon the subject of irrigation projects lying incomplete for want of funds, the governor noted that the tendency of starting new projects by allocating just a token amount was unsound and needed to be discouraged. This, according to him, created huge demand on limited resources.

Mentioning that the state could not afford to have discontent among citizens in rural and semi urban areas due to load-shedding, the governor called for communication between power distributors and power users to avoid conflicts. He also called upon engineers to devise innovative, simple and sustainable practices in implementing projects but advised them not to develop "too much friendship with contractors".

"Last month, I visited the MIHAN Project and SEZ attached to it in Nagpur. We have created best infrastructure for industries there. However, we need to market our projects at the international level aggressively to attract institutional investors," Sankaranarayanan stressed.

Noting that as head of the statutory development boards, he was keenly following the progress of irrigation works and backlog, he said, "I am aware that more than one thousand irrigation projects are under construction in the state. I feel we must review the progress of ongoing projects regularly and complete the projects that are near completion."

Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said that like the IAS officers, there should be in-service training programmes for engineers where their knowledge could be updated. If required the engineers should be sent abroad for training in the best institutions, he said.