Aurangabad/Patna: Chief secretary Pratyay Amrit on Monday expressed concern over the slow pace of work on the North Koel Canal project during a high-level review meeting conducted through video conferencing.
Officials from Aurangabad district, including district magistrate Abhilasha Sharma, additional collector Anugrah Narayan Singh and district land acquisition officer Upendra Pandit, participated in the meeting along with representatives of concerned departments.
The review covered construction progress across multiple project packages, availability of machinery and manpower, land acquisition and pending distribution system work.
Physical progress at 34.15%
According to officials, the project has achieved an overall progress of 51.47%, while physical progress stands at 34.15%.
Authorities informed the meeting that physical progress during the past seven days was recorded at 1.06%.
Package-wise updates presented during the review showed:
- Package 3: 78.43% completed
- Package 5: 65.70% completed
- Package 6: 70.75% completed
- Package 8: 56.32% completed
- Package 9: 43.38% completed
- Package 10: 45.83% completed
- Package 11: 61.41% completed
Resource shortage flagged
The chief secretary also reviewed the availability of machinery and workforce deployed by construction agencies.
Officials said the project requires 310 machines, but only 164 are currently available. Similarly, only 499 workers are engaged against a requirement of 1,241 personnel.
Expressing dissatisfaction over the shortfall, the chief secretary directed agencies to increase both manpower and machinery to speed up execution.
Land acquisition still underway
During the meeting, officials said that out of 41.251 hectares identified for acquisition in Aurangabad district, acquisition has been completed for 38.5734 hectares.
