Rourkela: The fifth board review meeting of the smart city project was held here on Wednesday. The meeting also reviewed issues relating to the district mineral fund.

Development commissioner R. Balakrishnan, principal secretary of housing and urban development G. Mathibhathanan and principal finance secretary Tuhin Kant Pandey, Sundergarh district collector Vineet Bharadwaj and chief executive officer of Rourkela Smart City Limited Manisha Banerjee were present in the meeting.

Banerjee briefed the meeting about the progress of smart city projects. Projects such as water and effluent tre-atment and underground sewerage systems are going on at present. The team took stock of situation of the other minor projects. Besides, future projects were also discussed.

The board members emphasised that the heritage of the city must be taken into consideration while undertaking the projects. The local people must be involved at the stage of planning of new projects to ensure greater sense of citizen involvement.

Speaking about the district mineral fund, the district collector explained that the finance secretary reviewed all the projects. "We have started or are about to start projects worth Rs 550 crore," said Bharadwaj.

Many projects have been sanctioned in the last one and half year. Outlining some of the programmes, the collector said: "We have projects, such as roads in Koira and Tensa, renovation of schools and distribution of sanitary napkins among adolescent girls in the mining areas of the district."

Some future projects include creation of anganwadi centres in the mining-affected areas and ensuring amenities such as roads, drinking water and electricity to local people.