The new Kozhikode Mayor and the district panchayat president have a tough task at hand — finishing Plan projects before the end of the fiscal.
Besides, Mayor Beena Philip has also the responsibility to complete Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Rural Transformation (Amrut) projects of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development.
Kozhikode is one of the cities that lags behind in the implementation of Amrut schemes among the nine civic bodies in the State. The State average on expenditure is 41.67% whereas Kozhikode’s average spending is 34.20%.
Projects are being implemented in areas of water supply, sewerage and septage management, stormwater drainage, urban transport, and green spaces and parks. The revised cost of the 50 projects is ₹284.64 crore.
As many as 30 of the projects had been completed during the previous tenure of the council. Technical sanctions had also been secured for unfinished projects.
Main challenge
A challenging task is implementing the three schemes under sewerage and septage management. So far, tenders have been awarded for one of them. The allocation for the three schemes is estimated at ₹130.62 crore.
The scheme in urban transport has been completed. Twenty-two out of the 28 schemes in water supply, two out of the 10 stormwater drainage projects and five out of the eight green space and parks have been completed.
All the 28 projects in the area of water supply worth ₹65.58 crore implemented by the Kerala Water Authority have been completed. The urban local body is the implementing agency in four sectors. Only 18.16% spending has been done in these categories till now.
Usually, civic bodies go through an uncertain phase towards the end of the financial year while implementing Plan projects.
The COVID-19 lockdown and local body polls have caused a delay in execution of projects. Mobilising resources will be a challenge for new district panchayat president Kanathil Jameela to implement Plan projects in the three-tier local bodies in the district.
