Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Friday inaugurated and laid foundation stones for 330 projects worth Rs 1,292 crore in Keonjhar, including 630 model primary schools across the state, a preventive cancer screening centre, a technology park and new healthcare and civic facilities.
The projects span education, healthcare, technology, roads and municipal infrastructure. Of the total, 198 projects worth around Rs 412 crore were inaugurated, while foundation stones were laid for 132 projects valued at more than Rs 880 crore, according to the announcement.
The third phase of the Godabarish Mishra Model Primary School Scheme will cover 630 schools, including 35 in Keonjhar district, at an estimated cost of nearly Rs 4,000 crore. With this phase, 952 model schools have been taken up across three phases. The Odisha government plans to spend nearly Rs 12,000 crore on 2,200 schools between 2025-26 and 2028-29.
The schools will be developed on around five acres each, with an estimated cost of Rs 5 crore to Rs 8 crore per school. The planned facilities include modern classrooms, digital learning tools and sports infrastructure. School and Mass Education Minister Nityananda Gond said the programme would improve access to modern educational facilities, particularly for children in rural and tribal areas.
Majhi also inaugurated the Rs 14-crore south campus of Dharanidhar University and laid the foundation stone for a 15-storey technology business park. The park will be built across 5.51 acres at an estimated cost of Rs 237 crore. The state government said the facility is intended to create employment opportunities for young people in north Odisha.
At Dharanidhar Medical College, the chief minister inaugurated Odisha’s first indigenous technology-based preventive cancer screening centre. Developed with support from the District Mineral Foundation at a cost of around Rs 6 crore, the centre will provide services free of charge.
The healthcare projects also include a seven-storeyed dental college costing Rs 58.40 crore, a 10-storeyed nursing college estimated at Rs 63 crore, a Rs 10-crore mother and child health department building and a Rs 32-crore modular operation theatre complex. Majhi also announced that a government pharmacy college would be established in Keonjhar.
Other facilities inaugurated or provided during the programme included a multi-utility centre, a police outpost, a 30-bed barrack, 23 District Mineral Foundation-funded ambulances and sanitation vehicles and equipment for Keonjhar, Joda and Barbil municipalities. The sanitation equipment includes light commercial vehicles, tractors, sprinklers and cesspool vehicles.
The government also rolled out free national common mobility cards for students travelling by bus and handed cards to Dharanidhar University students. Majhi said road-widening projects to improve connectivity to Keonjhar and a ring road at Barbil had also been taken up.
The chief minister said the government had introduced Shishu Vatika in more than 45,000 schools, extended midday meals and free textbooks to students in Classes IX and X, and appointed 28,639 teachers over the past two-and-a-half years. The newly announced projects will proceed through the respective construction, institutional and civic implementation agencies.
