THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: After months of uncertainty, the Public Works Department's (PWD) Rs 3771.47 crore District Flagship Infrastructure Project (DFIP) to accelerate infrastructure development in all 14 districts has got in-principle sanction.
P. C. Harikesh, chief executive officer of the Kerala Road Fund Board (KRFB), has been asked to prepare a detailed project report (DPR) for 21 projects under the DFIP, though few among them are already underway.
Fifty percent of the additional sales tax collected at the rate of Re 1 per litre of petrol and diesel, expected to be Rs 200 crore per annum, will be used to finance these projects.
The PWD’s flagship project was prepared as per a directive of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy when it made a slew of proposals before the 2015-16 budget.
But finance minister K. M. Mani, in his budget speech, had not revealed the source of funding.
PWD secretary A. P. M. Mohammed Hanish issued a GO (No: 801/2015/PWD) on this on June 10.
“In order to get the technical sanction, a DPR has to be prepared for most of the projects. Works on projects like Karamana – Kaliyikkavila Phase II – Reach II (Rs 160 crore), Vyttila flyover (Rs 90 crore), Kundannoor flyover (Rs 85 crore) have already been started after submitting the DPR and getting the administrative sanction,” Mr Hanish told DC.
One major infrastructure project will be taken up in every district. When works of national highways were stalled in land acquisition mess for decades, in the case of DFIP, it has been proposed to acquire land through negotiated purchases.
A top KRFB official said the “major hurdle is definitely going to be the finance department’s approval”.
“We will not be able to take up all the 21 projects in one go. The project will be taken one by one in due course,” he told DC.
