Urging divisional and district administration to gear up for completing the languishing developmental projects, Chief Secretary, B V R Subrahmanyam said that Governor’s administration is according top priority to the Rs 8000 Cr developmental initiative across the state.“My point of coming to Srinagar regularly and interacting with you all is because we have to build a good system of governance which will outlast us,” Chief Secretary, who is on a three-day visit to Kashmir, said this while chairing a meeting at the winter secretariat here yesterday to review the implementation of the major developmental initiatives of Budgam District being funded through the newly established Jammu and Kashmir Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation (JKIDFC).The Rs 8000 Crore developmental initiative mainly focuses on completing languishing and incomplete projects across the State.Chief Secretary observed that infrastructure projects with deficient governance often result in cost overruns, delays and underperformance. “Poor governance is a major contributing factor as to why infrastructure projects fail to meet their timeframe, budget and service delivery objectives” he said.Chief Secretary asked the District Administration to ensure that while conceiving new projects, it should be seen that these are as per district specific requirements, cost efficient and without any land or legal issues involved.
These key factors, if addressed, will allow us to execute the projects smoothly and deliver these on time to the public” Chief Secretary stressed.The meeting was also attended by Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, Baseer Ahmad Khan, Deputy Commissioner Budgam, CEO JKIDFC, Divisional Heads of the Departments of Power, Education, Food, Agriculture, Industries, R&B, PHE, I&FC, Health and other senior officers.During the meeting, Deputy Commissioner Budgam informed that 71 languishing projects worth more than Rs 130 crore have already been projected to the JKIDFC for funding while 32 projects worth Rs 145 crore have been submitted for approval. It was also revealed that Budgam district administration is in the process of submitting eight projects worth Rs 11.49 crore and 11 new projects worth Rs 133 crore for funding under JKIDFC.Chief Secretary directed the administration to finalize the Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) of languishing and new projects by December 31.Chief Secretary also discussed new projects proposed by the district administration in various sectors like Health, Youth Services and Sports and Education. DC Budgam was asked to satisfy the viability of these projects before proposing them for funding by JKIDFC.The district level officers of major departments of Budgam also participated in the meeting.