The Kerala Road Fund Board (KRFB), the funding agency for providing financial assistance to the transport facility projects, has been designated as the special purpose vehicle for road infrastructure works to be executed in the State with financial assistance of the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB).
The KRFB has been asked to scrutinise the Detailed Project Reports (DPR) being prepared by the Public Works Department’s (PWD) roads and bridges wing for the works that need KIIFB assistance.
The DPR to be forwarded by the Chief Engineer, Roads and Bridges, PWD, will be vetted by the KRFB for technical expertise, technology, quality and quantity of construction materials used for the works, and financial viability on the basis of the broad parameters fixed by the KIIFB.
A separate division with experts and officials of the PWD will be created in the KRFB to take care exclusively of the new responsibility entrusted to it and to complete it in the time frame alloted by the KIIFB, official sources told The Hindu . Over 100 projects related to road infrastructure are being worked out.
The vetted DPR would be forwarded to the KIIFB for perusal, sources said. Besides these tasks, the KRFB has also been asked to supervise and monitor the works to ensure quality.
A six-member technical committee has been set up by the government, as requested by the KRFB, to scrutinise the DPR of various road corridors sanctioned under the Special Investment Scheme for availing the financial assistance from KIIFB.
A committee headed by the Chief Engineer, Roads and Bridges, PWD, has also been asked to verify Bill of Quantities (BoQ) and accord technical sanction of works approved for funding by KIIFB.
The KRFB is gearing up for these responsibility by recruiting more personnel.
A meeting of the newly-constituted KIIFB chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has approved 48 projects costing Rs.4,004.86 crore. The PWD projects that has got the approval include construction of flyovers at Sreekaryam, Pattom and Ulloor junctions and four-laning of the 6.5-km Pravachambalam- Vazhimukku corridor of the National Highway 66.
