Bhubaneswar: Civic officials on Wednesday took part in the first apex conference of Indian Smart Cities in Bhopal and showcased three of its prominent projects at the meet.

Smart Janpath, street art and mural project and social equity centre projects of Bhubaneswar were showcased at the national-level conference. The meet was held with an aim to provide a platform for cross learning and knowledge sharing among the smart cities.

Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation's additional commissioner Shubham Saxena represented the city at the meet. He informed the participants about the implementation of the three projects of the Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL).

The BSCL, the special purpose vehicle executing the smart city projects here, had set up a kiosk to showcase its three important projects.

"The objective of the apex conference is to provide momentum to the cities sharing and disseminating the experience gained since the inception of the mission two-and-a-half-years back. The exhibition and presentations by officials gives insights for accelerating projects," said Saxena.

He said the convergence of all the best practices in Smart City Missions across the country on a single platform helped leaders not waste time in reinventing the wheels, but use the collective learning to accelerate the progress of work.

Urban planner Piyush Rout said that such conferences do help build the capacity of the officials.

"I hope that the official has come back with knowledge that will help in better implementation of various projects," said Rout.

Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena said they had improved the urban status of the city since the inception of the smart city mission.

"A number of officials from various cities had come to us for knowledge sharing. This time the conference brought all of them together," said Jena.

The Union ministry of housing and urban affairs had organised the two-day conference to provide a platform for cross-learning and knowledge-sharing among smart city officials. The conference, which concluded on Wednesday, will enable officials to learn from experiences of all city leaders, sources said.