Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday issued a stern warning to all departmental heads for completion of the restoration of infrastructure ravaged by Cyclone Titli within the given deadline.
The restoration works had slowed down as workers were absent for Dussehra celebrations.
Mr. Patnaik reviewed the relief and restoration work being undertaken in the cyclone-hit southern Odisha districts at the State secretariat here.
He directed the appointment of independent observers to evaluate restoration works by undertaking ground visits.
The Chief Minister is scheduled to take stock of the situation again after five days.
Roads repaired
Although almost 90% of the roads damaged in the natural disaster have already been repaired, vehicular movement on the road stretch from Soroda and Gajalbadi in Ganjam district has not returned to normality yet. Huge pieces of rocks and fallen trees are still suspended from the adjacent hills. Similarly, 557 out of 570 rural roads damaged have been restored by now.
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According to Special Relief Commissioner’s office, breaches had occurred in the river and canal embankments but most of these have been repaired in the past few days.
Power restoration work in the worst-hit Gajapati district faces an uphill task. Of the 1,20,000 power consumers, electricity has been restored to 60,000 users.
Power restoration
The government had ordered complete restoration of power in Gajapati within the next two days.
In other affected districts such as Kandhamal, Ganjam and Rayagada, electricity has been restored to 8.80 lakh out of the 9.39 lakh users.
There has been extensive damage to both private and public properties.
As many 57,131 private houses have been damaged and standing crops in about 2.73 lakh hectares of land have suffered extensive damage.
Central assistance
The State government has submitted a preliminary memorandum to the Centre estimating a fund requirement of ₹2,770.28 crore and seeking Central assistance of ₹2,014.09 crore from the National Disaster Response Fund over and above the funds available in the State Disaster Response Fund for the year 2018-19.
