Orissa to implement Rs 305 cr. Ong irrigation project soon

Exactly eight years after the ministry of environment and forest accorded stage-I forest clearance to Ong Irrigation Project, the Orissa government has decided to go ahead with the major project to be implemented at an estimated cost of Rs305 crore, official sources said.
   
"Notification for land acquisition for the Ong project has already been made. The state government has also made budgetary allocation for the purpose," water resources secretary Suresh Chandra Mohapatra told reporters after holding a discussion with the local MLA and state's Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste Minister Bijay Ranjan Singh Bariha.
   
Stating that the project would irrigate about 30,000 hecatre of land in Bargarh district, Mohapatra said that public hearing for the pupose was conducted both in Orissa and
neighbouring Chhatishgarh state.
   
The drought prone area of Padmapur, Sohela, Bijepur, Gaisilat blocks of Padampur in Baragarah district and Agalpur block of Balangir district would get irrigation facilities after completion of the project, Mohapatra said.
    
While Rs10 crore was allocated for the project in the current fiscal, Rs 15 crore could be sanctioned in 2011-12, Mohapatra said adding that there was apparently no opposition to the project in Bargarh's Padmapur area.
   
While the Stage-I Forest clearance had been received from MOEF during February, 2003, the public hearing for environment clearance was conducted on August 6, 2004 in Orissa and on September 11, 2007 in Chhatisgarh.