LUCKNOW, Oct. 24 -- After three decades, the Uttar Pradesh government has approved a five-fold increase in the financial powers of public works department (PWD) officers, alongside a comprehensive revision of the engineers' service structure.

Presiding over a PWD review meeting on Friday, chief minister Yogi Adityanath cleared the proposal aimed at streamlining decision-making, expediting processes like tendering, contracting, and project execution besides granting greater autonomy to departmental officers, thus reducing dependence on higher-level approvals.

It was pointed out in the review meeting that financial powers of PWD officers were last revised in 1995, even though construction costs have since increased by over 5.5 times, acco...