Bhubaneswar, April 25: The execution of various smart city projects along Janpath is going to be a difficult task for the municipal corporation with the slum dwellers living on this stretch gearing up to start an agitation against their displacement.

The administration has planned to convert Janpath into the Bhubaneswar Town Centre District under the smart city mission, which will see projects such as an artificial lake, an institutional core, railway station multi-modal hub, smart street and four smart housing projects being executed.

These projects can only be executed after the 50,000 odd slum dwellers living in the 25 or so slums on this stretch are removed. The administration plans to rehabilitate them in four proposed housing projects on the same stretch. However, the slum-dwellers don't want to move out and have rejected the rehabilitation plan.

An association working for the welfare of the city's slum-dwellers has started holding meetings in various slums asking them not to co-operate with the projects officials if their demands were not fulfilled. Earlier, they had agreed to get rehabilitated in the new houses, but they are now demanding land.

President of Basti Surkhsya Manch Pratap Sahu said the civic body had betrayed them.

"First, the beneficiary list prepared by the civic body is faulty. Then, they are going to rehabilitate us in the new houses and they will ask money from us for that. These are poor people, earning less than what the administration thinks they do. How can they pay lakhs for the houses?" said Sahu.

He said the betrayal would not go unanswered. "There are other vacant stretches in the city where these projects could have come up. But they chose Janpath, which is the location of some of the major slums in the city. The value of land here is very high. We are not going to support the administration in their arbitrary move. We will demand land if not they cannot take up the projects here," he said.

On the other hand, the municipal corporation has finished surveying the beneficiaries and the areas they are currently occupying. According to the civic body's report, there are 25 slums on the stretch and 20,000 eligible beneficiaries. The administration plans to rehabilitate the population in four housing projects at Kharavela Nagar, Shanti Nagar, Bapuji Nagar and Saheed Nagar.

"We have finished the survey and also initiated the process of executing the first housing project at Shanti Nagar. We are hearing about the protest plans and are trying to make them understand that these projects will benefit them. They will get houses by paying Rs 10 lakh to Rs 15 lakh for which we are also helping them get loans with ease," said mayor Ananta Narayan Jena.