Bhubaneswar, June 25: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik today briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the progress of the smart city mission on its first anniversary and urged Modi to include Cuttack, Berhampur and Sambalpur in the ambitious scheme.
Modi was interacting with chief ministers of states and officials from the top 20 smart cities from Pune through live videoconference. In January, the urban development ministry had released the first list of 20 chosen cities, which Bhubaneswar topped.
Interacting with Modi, Naveen said his government was committed to the all-round development of Bhubaneswar.
"After the 1999 super cyclone, the city was devastated. However, it made significant improvements in 16 years and has now emerged as the IT hub of the eastern region," said the chief minister.
The city administration, after winning the smart city challenge, had formed a special purpose vehicle, Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited, for executing various projects, including Bhubaneswar Town Centre District, establishment of railway station multi modal hub, Satya Nagar institutional core area and housing redevelopment project on Janpath.
Among other pan-city solutions under the smart city project, the city administration proposed to develop intelligent city operations and management centre, which will include intelligent traffic management, video surveillance at traffic junctions, emergency warning and monitoring system and an integrated city control room to coordinate and control all the activities through the use of information and technology tools.
The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation also organised a workshop to mark the first anniversary of the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation scheme. The civic body had laid the foundation of two parks at Sailashree Vihar and Kanan Vihar as part of the celebrations.
Housing and urban development minister Pushpendra Singh Deo laid the foundation stone of the park at Kanan Vihar, which will come up at a cost of Rs 52 lakh while the park at Sailashree Vihar will be constructed at Rs 51 lakh. The work will be executed by the municipal corporation, which has aimed to complete the work within two to three years.
The two parks will have more than 1.07 lakh and 35,700sqft areas respectively. The two parks will have amenities for children, the elderly and physically challenged people. The city also plans to execute 38 water supply projects and 17 more parks during 2016-17.
