Bhubaneswar: The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) sanctioned Rs 220.50 crore to Odisha government under Rural Infrastructure Development Fund (RIDF) for 57 flood protection projects and a rural bridge.
According to sources, these projects will help two credit-starved districts of Kendrapada and Nuapada, four aspirational districts of Balangir, Kalahandi, Nuapada, and Rayagada, six Left-Wing Extremism (LWE) affected districts of Balangir, Boudh, Kalahandi, Nayagarh, Nuapada and Rayagada and eight disaster-affected districts of Balangir, Boudh, Jajpur, Kalahandi, Khurda, Nayagarh, Nuapada, and Sonepur.
The Department of Water Resources (DOWR- Major & Medium) will execute the projects for the protection and restoration of river banks at 57 identified stretches on 32 different rivers/creeks for restoration and stabilization of agricultural land, standing crops, and providing flood relief operations by the construction of one rural bridge.
Notably, the major work includes repairing and strengthening washed-out banks of the rivers 50.69 km, construction of launching aprons and stone packing of the slope of embankments, raising and strengthening of embankments (107.74 km), construction of CC guard wall, etc, construction of 93 new branches, provision of BT road on embankments for a total length of 57.78 km.
It is pertinent to mention here that the proposal also involves the construction of a box cell bridge over Sankha creek in Jagatsinghpur district, which has sluices to prevent saline ingress into the farmlands at Patua and Baghadi respectively.
