BHUBANESWAR: The State Government has completed work on 250 bridges and 129 road projects under the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) provided by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard). Since the inception of RIDF in 1995-96, Nabard has sanctioned ` 956 cr for 479 projects. This includes 332 bridges and 147 roads of 1611 km stretch. The State Government has commissioned 379 projects including 250 bridges and 129 roads of 1435 km length. Ninety-three projects including 76 bridges are at different stages of construction, according to Rural Development Secretary SN Tripathy. The remaining seven projects including six bridges are yet to be started. The Government has taken up 21 newly sanctioned projects at an estimated cost of ` 130 cr. While tender has been finalised for 14 projects, the other seven are under tendering process, he said. Government proposal for 35 projects worth ` 214 cr is pending for approval and the department has targeted to complete 33 bridges and eight roads with an estimated cost of ` 190 cr in the current financial year. Nabard has so far disbursed ` 2872 cr of loan to the the State under RIDF for undertaking 947 projects in the roads and bridges segment, one drinking water supply system project, 1162 projects in the animal husbandry segment, 1,14,304 projects in the irrigation sector, nine passenger jetties and 27 other projects. Out of the total 1,16,450 projects, 68,144 projects have been completed. Rural connectivity projects (roads and bridges) account for 54 per cent of the loan extended from RIDF while irrigation sector accounted for 44 per cent. In 2010-11, Nabard sanctioned ` 710.40 cr for 593 projects. This includes 89 projects in the irrigation sector at ` 252.98 cr, 51 road and bridge projects at an estimated cost of ` 421 cr and 453 other projects including tube wells, bore wells, dug wells and river lifts entailing a cost of ` 36.42 cr. Under diversification programme during 2007-08 and 2008-09, projects have been sanctioned to Fisheries Department for construction of fish landing centres, to animal husbandry department for construction of veterinary dispensaries and livestock aid centres and to irrigation department for supply of drinking water in rural areas. Other non-traditional and innovative projects sanctioned recently under RIDF include rural markets at Dhamra in Bhadrak district and Orissa Biological Product Institute at Khurda during 2009-10.
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