A large number of projects beneficial to city dwellers would get a fresh lease of life as the State government has decided to extend the deadline of spill-over works of local bodies for one more year.
Last week, the State cabinet had extended the deadline for the spill-over projects, the ones which could not be completed in the financial year in which it was initiated, to 2016 March 31 to help the local bodies to complete the pending jobs.
With three days left for the completion of the current fiscal, it was feared that 40 per cent of the spill-over works would be lapsed this year in Kochi Corporation
As in the case of most of the local bodies across the State, the Kochi Corporation too was finding it difficult to complete the carryover works from the previous years. Funds allocated by the State government for the works would have been lapsed on March 31, the original deadline for the completion. It is mostly large works related to buildings and special projects designed for the socially and economically backward sections that have been salvaged by the government decision in Kochi.
In Kochi, a large number of works remains incomplete including the repair and reconstruction of buildings. There are a few other projects in the local body including the proposal to provide buses and autorickshaws for beneficiaries including self help groups of women. These projects would have been wasted if the government had not taken the decision, said a civic administrator.
The construction and repair of buildings involves multiple agencies and works like pluming, electrification and sanitary works. Civic bodies would get limited time for carrying out the work after finishing the paper works. Unforeseen developments like strikes in granite quarries and the agitations by contractors also proved costly for the local body this year, said Soumini Jain, chairperson of the Works Standing Committee of the Kochi Corporation.
In case of the projects for the Scheduled Case communities, only those projects which satisfy the specifications can be approved. The verification regarding the compliance of specifications is a time-consuming exercise done by the official from the SC/ST Development Department. With the extended deadline, the local body would get enough time for competing the projects, Ms. Jain said.