Viksit Odisha / Odisha launches CM-PRAGATI to fast-track stalled projects, Chief Minister to chair monthly reviews

Bhubaneswar, Nov 10: The Odisha government has introduced a high-level monitoring mechanism, CM-PRAGATI, to accelerate the implementation of major development projects and address delays arising from administrative hurdles and lack of coordination among departments.

Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi will chair the committee, which will meet every month to review project progress, identify bottlenecks and facilitate time-bound decisions to speed up implementation.

According to a notification issued by the Planning and Coordination Department, the mechanism will cover major ongoing projects of both the state and Central governments, along with proposed projects of strategic importance.

The committee will focus particularly on projects facing prolonged delays, inter-departmental coordination problems, delays in policy decisions and other administrative bottlenecks. It will facilitate high-level interventions wherever necessary to resolve pending issues and expedite execution.

Who will be part of the CM-PRAGATI committee?
Apart from the Chief Minister as chairperson, the committee will include the Chief Secretary, Development Commissioner-cum-Additional Chief Secretary and secretaries of the following departments:

Revenue and Disaster Management
Energy
Finance
Forest, Environment and Climate Change
Works
Rural Development
Housing and Urban Development
Commerce and Transport

The Chief Executive Officer of the State Institute for Transformative Initiatives (SITI), Odisha, will serve as the Member Convenor.

Projects worth over Rs 10 crore to come under review
The monitoring mechanism will not be restricted to infrastructure projects. Major projects from several other departments will also be brought under its purview.

Projects worth more than Rs 10 crore from the following departments will be considered for review:

Fisheries and Animal Resources Development
Health and Family Welfare
Labour and Employees' State Insurance
Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water
School and Mass Education
Sports and Youth Services
Steel and Mines
Water Resources
Women and Child Development

Project selection will be based on factors such as strategic importance, urgency, prolonged delays, implementation hurdles and public interest.

Projects listed with the Centre's Project Monitoring Group (PMG) that require intervention by the Odisha government will also be considered under the mechanism.

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Digital dashboard to track project progress
A key feature of CM-PRAGATI will be digital monitoring through an information technology-based dashboard.

The platform will track project progress, implementation of decisions taken during committee meetings and the status of unresolved issues. This is expected to help the government monitor whether departments and implementing agencies are acting on decisions within the stipulated timelines.

The concerned departments and executing agencies will have to submit accurate and updated project information, progress reports and details of action taken to SITI-Odisha within the prescribed deadlines.

SITI-Odisha will provide secretarial and technical support to the committee.

The CM-PRAGATI mechanism will come into effect from the date of publication of the notification in the Odisha Gazette.

Through the new arrangement, the state government aims to make project reviews more regular and outcome-oriented while strengthening accountability among departments responsible for implementation.