Rourkela: Amid political twists and turns, senior leader Dilip Ray has expressed his gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for showing commitment to fulfil the two longstanding promises – second bridge over Brahmani and upgration of Ispat General Hospital (IGH) in a time bound manner. Ray said the development has come as a ray hope.
Ray had quit BJP on November 30 last year expressing displeasure over the slow pace of second Brahmani bridge project and upgradation of IGH. Both projects were officially announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 1, 2015 though the latter promised it during 2014 elections.
On March 4, Ray again blasted BJP and demanded that the Centre should produce proofs to corroborate their claim regarding the status of the project.
Recently, Ray has been provided with the status report of the project along with particulars of the sanctioned amount by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).
“As per the details provided, a budgetary provision of Rs 294.82 crores has been granted towards the project by the Standing Finance Committee (SFC) under the chairmanship of Steel Secretary. In a much-awaited development, the Ministry of Steel has transferred Rs 105.75 crore for the project of conversion of IGH to a Super-speciality Hospital and PG Medical Education to SAIL and an amount of Rs 98, 27,46,631 (33% of the project cost) has been transferred by RSP to M/S NBFCC for the execution of the project,” said Ray in Facebook page.
“This apart, the PMO office has also assured that the execution of this project will be done in an expeditious time-frame manner and the remaining funds will be sanctioned as soon as possible. After a protracted phase of darkness and uncertainty, this has come as a ray of hope for us and I convey my deep regards to the Prime Minister for doing the needful to sanction funds for this project that will give the people of my city respite from the poor-health infrastructure in the region,” said Ray.
Regarding the issue of Brahmani Bridge, though the work continues to progress at a snail’s pace, the Prime Minister’s office has committed that the execution of the project will be completed by the financial year 2020-21 and the measures to expedite its execution will be taken at the earliest in a mission mode, added Ray.
