Bhubaneswar, Jan. 5: The days of running from one part of the city to another for basic government or civic facilities are set to become history.

The Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL) has come up with a plan to develop a state-of-the-art institutional core project area at Satya Nagar to provide a centralised facility to citizens.

The project, which will be executed under the ambitious Smart City Mission, will have an institutional cluster to house several major government and private institutions such as the World Trade Centre. It will have a central plaza for cultural activities, a dedicated hotel corridor and other facilities.

The administration has already identified around 40 acres around Toshali Bhavan for the facility.

"We held a preliminary meeting regarding the project yesterday. We have asked our consultants to design a detailed project report following which we will partner with a private player for its executions," said a senior official of the BSCL.

Built to provide space to tech giants, the high-end Toshali Bhavan was a prime property of the Odisha State Housing Board in the early 1990s. But since the plan headed nowhere, it was handed over to the state government in 2007.

Since then, the building has housed a number of government offices, including those of the Lokpal, State Election Commission, State Information Commission, State Commission for Women, State Human Rights Commission and the Mahila Vikash Nigam. It also houses the administrative unit of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bhubaneswar.

Sources said Toshali Bhavan was likely to be converted into a World Trade Centre-like facility in the proposed institutional core project.

"The building has a built-up area of around 3.19 lakh sqft and is fit to be converted into the institutional cluster," the official said.

He added that the surroundings would be vacated to make space for other facilities.

Besides the institutional core area, the project will have quality infrastructure such as smart bins, non-vehicular zones, multi-level smart parking, dedicated street vending zones and a central plaza for cultural and congregational activities.

It is expected that the project would provide employment to around 13,850 people and house a population of at least 3,015.

"The Satya Nagar project is one of the most ambitious projects under the Smart City Mission. The project aims to provide an array of facilities to the residents of Bhubaneswar," mayor Ananta Narayan Jena said.

"We have proposed this project under the area-based development of smart city. The officials have already initiated the process of executing the project and we are hopeful of completing it in the next three years," the mayor went on to add.

Citizens also welcomed the administration's move to have a quality facility.

"It is a good plan on part of the administration. It will definitely add to Bhubaneswar's value. However, the administration should also execute it in a timely manner," said Bibhudatta Maharana, a resident of Satya Nagar.