ADB approves Rs 967 cr road projects in Phailin hit area

A total road network of 1790.37 km will be established in 14 districts

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved Rs 966.75 crore for 484 new road projects to be implemented across 14 districts of Odisha hit by tropical cyclone Phailin and subsequent floods.

A total road network of 1,790.37 km will be established in the 14 districts — Balasore, Bhadrak, Deogarh, Jagasinghpur, Keonjhar, Koraput, Kandhamal, Cuttack, Ganjam, Jajpur, Kendrapara, Khurda, Mayurbhanj and Puri.

The assistance has been approved by ADB under the third tranche of Pradhan Mantri Grameen Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) for 2013-14, said a written reply to the assembly by rural development minister Bikram Keshari Arukh.

“The state government had submitted a proposal to the Centre for improvement of 3,076.62 km of roads, seeking assistance of Rs 1,412.01 crore. The work is to be taken up in regions affected by severe cyclone Phailin and floods in its aftermath,” the minister said in the reply.

Phailin had pounded the state's southern coast near Gopalpur on October 12.

After a detailed damage assessment, the state government had requested the Centre to provide Rs 4,242. Rs 41 crore towards rebuilding homes and power infrastructure. Later, the government had also submitted a supplementary memorandum, seeking an additional central assistance of Rs 1,590.09 crore for relief and restoration work in the aftermath of flash floods that followed Phailin.

Phailin had caused extensive damage to the power infrastructure. The storm had damaged 1,796 feeders and affected 41152 sub-stations. In addition, it affected 3,7912.2 km of low tension lines, 4,074 km of extra high tension lines, 408,360 electric poles and 93 extra high tension towers.

The severe damage to electrical infrastructure impacted 3914,714 consumers in 45,616 towns and villages.