(a) Repealed by 1961, Sept. 12, P.L. 1268, § 5.

(a.1) Repealed by 1966, Feb. 1, P.L. (1965) 1642, § 16, effective June 30, 1968.

(b) The Department of Education shall determine reimbursement eligibility of all projects including projects submitted for approval prior to the effective date of this act in the order of date of filing of applications for project approval with the department, except that in the case of application for area career and technical schools, the department may grant priority to such applications in the order in which said applications are received and process them immediately. If a delay in departmental processing of any application on file is occasioned by the applying school district, the department shall proceed to determine reimbursement eligibility of projects next in order, except that in the event of any emergency due to fire, flood, orders from the Department of Labor and Industry to close school buildings or parts thereof where such school buildings or parts thereof are determined to be irreparable and are closed finally by the Department of Labor and Industry, or an act of God, which causes undue hardship beyond the control of the applying school district, the department may grant priority over the eligibility of projects submitted prior to the emergency application.

(c) Unless the general construction contract for any project is awarded within ten months subsequent to the date of approval by the Department of Education and by any other agency as required by existing law, approval shall be withdrawn, except that when a district shows to the satisfaction of the department that the contract has not been let for reasons beyond its control or that withdrawal of approval would work undue hardship, the department may grant extensions beyond the ten-months period for three periods of ninety days each before approval is withdrawn. A project for which approval is withdrawn may be resubmitted to the department as a new project.