Bhubaneswar, Feb. 6: Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited has started the process to convert a stretch on the Janpath into the "smartest" street in the city.

Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL), the special purpose vehicle of the smart city, has invited bidders to execute the project. The project includes development of the stretch from Vani Vihar Square to Raj Mahal Square with proper pedestrian path, vending zones, parking lots, speed regulating mechanism, automatic traffic lighting system and plantation among others.

Stakeholders such as officials of the Bhubneswar Municipal Corporation, Bhubaneswar Development Authority and the twin cities police had a meeting regarding the project in last December, following which the special purpose vehicle's managing director Krishan Kumar tweeted: "Smart Janpath to be first citizen friendly road with state of art design and IT Solutions. Expect work to start by March next year!!"

"We have invited tenders for the Smart Janpath project and are hoping to finish the process and begin the work by March. Janpath had already been selected to have an array of projects under the area-based development plan of the smart city project. The Smart Janpath project is one of the most important among them. We have considered best practices of other cities and come up with this project," said Kumar.

At present, the busy stretch of Janpath faces major problems such as unauthorised on-street parking and vending on footpaths and cycle tracks. Large sections of the pavements and service lanes on this stretch are encroached upon by unauthorised parking, street vendors, structures such as temples and electronic transformers.

"We have already formed a special joint squad to clear the encroachments from Janpath for the proposed project. We are conducting the eviction drive regularly and also asking the encroachers to remove their set-ups. The work is speeding up every day, and we hope to make Janapth encroachment-free shortly," said an official of the development authority.

Kharavela Nagar resident Himansu Hota said the plan sounded good, but the real test would be implementation.

"The city has already achieved the feat of topping the smart city challenge last year. Other cities are watching Bhubaneswar to see how it will take up the main challenge of implementing the projects. At this point, the responsibility of the administrators has grown. I hope they will live up to expectations," said Hota.