An aerial view of Bhubaneswar. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, Aug. 6: A development model from a municipal corporation in Narendra Modi’s Gujarat has spurred a change in Naveen Patnaik’s city.

Inspired by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, development authorities here plan to change the face of the city with a ring road surrounding it.

To give shape to the plan, the Bhubaneswar Development Authority, which covers an area of 400sqkm, today signed an MoU with the corporation. Planning member of the development authority Pitabasa Sahoo and deputy town officer of the municipal corporation Vatsal Patel signed the pact.

Housing and urban development minister Debi Prasad Mishra and chief secretary Jugal Kishore Mohapatra were present during the MoU signing.

The Ahmedabad civic body will provide technical support for the purpose. Commissioner of the corporation Guru Prasad Mohapatra said: “Besides technical support, we will also provide the required human resources to assist the development authority in carrying out the project. Within three years, a visible change will take place in Bhubaneswar.”

The development authority will shortly start measurement and levelling of land to construct the ring road. The corporation will also develop a model city on 1,200 acres at Madanpur, Jagasara and Durgapur on the city outskirts.

“The concept is to develop the area through equal contribution by all land owners. The finance required for infrastructure can be met if some percentage of the land is available for selling in open market, proceeds of which can be funded for expenditure,” said Mohapatra.

Under the scheme, a detailed plan will be chalked out to develop each plot, make provision for roads for each plot and have sites for social infrastructure.

Of the total available land, 16.68 per cent will be reserved to develop roads and six per cent will be kept for garden and open space. Besides, six per cent land will be used to develop social infrastructures. Houses for weaker section will come up on 2.25 per cent of the available land, residential complexes will be built on 4.52 per cent land and 4.80 per cent land will be sold.

Development commissioner and housing and urban development secretary Injeti Srinivas said: “So far, schemes are mostly implemented on government land or acquired private land. The difficulty in land acquisition can be overcome through active participation of the land owners.”

Secretary of the development authority Vishal Kumar Dev said: “We will not have to pay anything to the corporation for this project. We value their rich experience and intent to share it with us, so that we can adopt a planned development of our city.”