Bhubaneswar: The civic body's new address at Janpath is inching closer after a joint squad cleared encroachments from the site identified for the project.

The civic body's enforcement squad, along with officials from the development authority, on Wednesday demolished government quarters that were coming in the way of the project site at Satya Nagar.

"We demolished two four-room government quarters and will subsequently raze the remaining ones. We plan to hand over the site by the middle of August," said an enforcement official.

In January 2017, the general administration department allotted 3.48 acres in front of the Satya Nagar crematorium for the civic body's new headquarters along with the smart city office.

Later, during site inspection, it was found that there were 12 government quarters that needed to be demolished to clear the site. "Once the land is cleared, we will begin the process of finding an executor," said a civic official.

The civic body has already finalised the design for the project. The 10-storey structure, which will come up for Rs 66 crore, will house the Integrated City Operations and Management Centre along with the offices of Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited.

The civic body had searched for a suitable site at Nayapalli, Ganga Nagar and others, before settling on the Satya Nagar location.

"The existing office is too small to handle increasing administrative activities. So, we decided to have a bigger and more spacious headquarters looking at the city's future needs," said mayor Ananta Narayan Jena.