A night shelter at Kharvel Nagar area in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, May 27: Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) is preparing a plan to construct seven permanent night shelters for the homeless people of the city.

The BMC authorities have written to the general administration department to provide land for the project near railway tracks, bus stops and places near industrial estates.

“The general administration department officials have started processing our request. As soon as we get the land, permanent night shelters will be constructed on them,’’ said BMC commissioner Vishal Kumar Dev.

The housing and urban development department convened a meeting today where the issue of constructing night shelters in three major cities of the state was discussed.

In view of the homeless population in these cities, there is a plan to construct seven permanent night shelters in Bhubaneswar, six in Cuttack and two in Puri.

The meeting also discussed issues related to providing necessary infrastructure such as electricity, bedroll, toilets, drinking water and food to the beneficiaries. In their report, the BMC authorities have proposed integrating the services of the women and child welfare and civil supplies departments for the provision of food as they have several programmes to supply food for the poor.

“Earlier, we had identified 260 urban poor who did not have any shelters and were forced to sleep at various places such as bus terminals and railway stations. The identification was done through a survey conducted by the Centre for Development Research and Training of the Xavier’s Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar,’’ said BMC’s slum improvement officer Dillip Kumar Routrai.

BMC now runs two temporary night shelters — one at Malisahi slum area near Sriya Cinema in Kharvel Nagar and the other at Gyananagar Community Centre.

“In summer, people are willing to stay back near their places of work because of intense heat-wave like conditions. So these two centres are not being fully used by the homeless people,’’ Routrai added.

Regarding difficulties in operating night shelters, a senior BMC official said that in the beginning, the baseline survey cost the civic body around Rs 4 lakh.

“The Supreme Court had specified other facilities and provision of food for these shelters. So, we need help from other agencies for funds,’’ he added.