JAMMU: In a review meeting to take stock of the progress made so far under Jammu & Kashmir Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation (JKIDFC) sponsored projects, the Chief Secretary, Dr Arun Kumar Mehta, today exhorted upon the Corporation to live up to its potential for accelerating the completion of projects in J&K.
The meeting was attended by Principal Secretary, PDD; Principal Secretary, H&UDD; Principal Secretary, I&C, Principal Secretary, PWD; Principal Secretary, Education; Commissioner Secretary, Information and IT; Commissioner Secretary, Forests; Commissioner Secretary, Social Welfare; Secretary Health; Secretary, Tourism; Director Finance, JKIDFC; General Manager, JKIDFC and many other officers from various departments.
Some of the Kashmir-based officers participated in the meeting through a video link.
Dr Mehta exhorted upon the officers to achieve the targets given to them within the accepted deadlines. He urged them to use all their prowess in removing the bottlenecks so that each project funded by JKIDFC is completed at the earliest. He asked them to dedicate the completed projects to the public forthwith.
The Chief Secretary impressed upon the officers to work in mission mode for completing the remaining projects and raise bills to book the expenditure at regular intervals. He impressed upon them that the original purpose of this initiative taken by the government is to create public infrastructure without any undue delay. Therefore it should be our collective effort to realize this objective by giving our best to complete each of the projects in the shortest time as funds are readily available to serve the purpose.
Dr Mehta asked each of the departments to furnish a list of non-initiated projects to be dropped out of corporation funding and a list of projects to be completed before 31 of March, 2023. He asked them to work out the final details of the projects to be carried forward for completion and the actual amount of funds required for them positively in a week’s time.
The meeting was informed that the Corporation has achieved the milestone of completing some 1507 projects at an estimated cost of Rs 2504 crore till date. It was given out that the e-compendium of the same would shortly be put in the public domain. It was said that earlier also district-wise e-book of 200, 500, 600, 800, and 1100 completed projects has been made available to the public.
It was further revealed that a loan of Rs 2750 crore was raised by the Corporation out of which 2730.81 crore has already been disbursed towards the funding of some 1990 projects. A total of 180 projects of different departments had been completed this year.
The meeting was apprised that the Corporation envisages exploring some revenue-generating projects also for its sustainability. It will look into the possibility of a public-private partnership (PPP) mode for finalizing the expression of interest with different financial institutions for its funding, as was given on the occasion.
It was said that the Corporation has completed all the necessary compliances as per the Companies Act, 2013. Moreover, it has completed financial statements till the 2020-21 fiscal and the statutory audit for FY 2020-21 has also been closed, as was informed in the meeting.
