(From top) Parks such as Biju Patnaik Park, Children’s Park and the Khandia Park may get a facelift once the new plan comes into effect. Pictures by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, May 10: The housing and urban development department will soon have a master plan for the parks of the city. The department will convene a preliminary meeting in this regard tomorrow with policymakers and various other heads of key participating organisations.

The experts will give suggestions on the maintenance and beautification of the parks. They will also listen to the views of the stakeholders and prepare a database on the parks compiling opinions of the various residents’ welfare associations, visitors, morning walkers’ associations and senior citizens regarding the maintenance of the parks.

According to sources, there is also a plan to develop these parks with a view to attract tourists to these places in a manner so that the latter could serve as alternative destination points and places of tourist interest in the capital.

The housing and urban development department will also seek suggestions from the tourism department to adopt specialised themes for the development of these parks.

The Telegraph carried a persistent campaign on providing better parks for the capital. The campaign has also highlighted how parks were lying in neglect at prime localities in the city due to the absence of any definite policy of the civic bodies for their maintenance.

The housing and urban development secretary has convened a meeting with senior officials and engineers of the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA), the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the directorate of horticulture tomorrow. The members will form a core committee. After the initial meeting, they will also submit the details of the master plan on parks by May 31.

“We have a comprehensive development plan (CDP) for the city. But for the maintenance and development of the green patches, which serve as the lungs for the urban settlement, there was no definite plan. So this proposed master plan for parks will become a major step towards a balanced growth of the city. The plan will also influence housing and real estate development in other upcoming localities, which are to be included in the CDP area in the next phase of expansion,” a BDA official said.

Nabaghana Tripathy, a member of the Nayapalli Community Care Association, said the proposed master plan for parks will definitely help in solving many problems of the Nayapalli area as parks here were either lying neglected or encroached by local residents and other institutions.

There are more than 50 parks in Bhubaneswar. Facilities differ in them according to their size and location. Six parks have children’s play area where kids below 12 years can play. The BDA spends around Rs 2 crore for annual maintenance of these parks.

The BDA has acquired 17 more parks, which were occupied either by the general administration department or the BMC, following declaration by the state government on World Environment Day last year. After the go ahead from the general administration department, the BDA has started the process to develop these parks.

With the more than two-fold increase in the CDP area, the metropolitan area of the capital will now be termed as the Bhubaneswar Development Plan Area (BDPA) consisting districts of Cuttack, Khurda and Puri.

This new expansion plan would perhaps be the biggest in the history of the city since its establishment in 1948.

The new addition will have 263 villages from Khurda, 88 from Puri and 16 from Cuttack district. There will also be 572 revenue villages under the development zone.

BDA sources informed that earlier the development was largely restricted on the Phulanakhara-Khurda line, but with the expansion of the surrounding areas, the development zone will be a circle like structure and Bhubaneswar will be spread out in all four directions from villages in Cuttack district to Delanga in Puri.

“Now, the proposed master plan for the parks of the city will definitely ensure a better and planned green cover for the BDPA, which will be more than 1000 square kilometres in size,’’ said an official.