Government officials in the State can now keep tabs on the progress of projects in the public and private sectors and speedily resolve prickly issues that impede timely completion.
The Central Cabinet Secretariat has deployed an online project management system named ePMS to facilitate, review, and fast-track projects in Kerala with investment from Rs.100 crore to Rs.1,000 crore.
The institutional mechanism is designed on the lines of eCCI, a system used by the Cabinet Committee on Investment to help track and pursue stalled investment projects and remove bottlenecks to ensure that they are completed on time. Developed using open source technology, the portal integrates the services of various departments.
ePMS can be used to submit a new project, update and review a project, and highlight the bottlenecks. It can assist in preparing the agenda and minutes of meetings and analytical reports. The portal generates automatic notifications to take instant action. One of the features of the system is that private entrepreneurs can view the progress of their projects as well as decisions.
The Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation (KSIDC) will be the monitoring agency for the investment tracking mechanism.
A State-level project monitoring group has also been set up under the government to pursue stalled projects. Kerala is the third State after Odisha and Uttarakhand to deploy the State-level investment tracking system.
Launching the portal here on Thursday, Chief Secretary E.K. Bharath Bhushan said it would be a powerful tool for the government to iron out unexpected hurdles such as the delay in land acquisition that held up projects. He said the government would utilise the tool well.
Additional Secretary of Cabinet Secretariat Anil Swarup, Joint Secretary V.P. Joy, and Additional Chief Secretary and Managing Director of KSIDC Aruna Sundararajan were present.
Informatics Division Head of Cabinet Secretariat Shubhag Chand said the eCCI system had helped clear 152 stalled projects involving an investment of Rs.5,31,779 crore.
