**Bhubaneswar:** Infrastructure is a high priority for the State Government as socio-economic standard of people as well as growth of State GDP depends on this. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today reviewed the performance of the Works Department and stressed on on quality, safety and timely completion of projects.
**Highlights of the Review:**
-Widening of two lane roads of 29.5km to four lane in KBK Districts
-Construction of Biju Expressway connecting North to South
-During the last 18 years Works Department has improved 16,052 km road length and completed 371 Bridges including 10 ROBs and 3 Flyovers.
-In the last four years the Department has improved 8,176 lun road length and completed 154 Bridges including 5 ROBs and one flyover.
-During last four years some of the major achievements of Government under Works Department in road sector are completion of 163 km road stretch from Rourkela to Sambalpur under PPP which is part of Biju Expressway, completion of 2.5km long “Utkal Gourav Madhusudan Setu” over river Mahanadi.
-Similarly some of major achievements in building sector during last 4 years are completion of 35 nos. Way-side Amenities Centres; 3 District Head Quarter Hospitals at Jharsuguda, Nuapada and Malkangiri.
-In the Capital region, Works Department is a major partner of Smart City Infrastructure Development.
Besides, Development of Road from Airport to Acharya Vihar along with its link roads with Janapath, construction of cycle track for a length of 40 km in view of ensuing World Cup hockey tournament, construction of alternate road network in left side of Jayadev Vihar to KIIT square to ease traffic congestion are some of the major programmes taken up by the Works Department.
After reviewing the Department’s performance, Naveen said, “Improvement of road and building infrastructure will be a continuous process for improving Socio- Economic conditions of the people to enable them to participate in building a modern Odisha.”
He instructed the Department to monitor and implement all ongoing projects on a time bound manner maintaining quality in construction and to ensure safety requirements during construction.
