Bhubaneswar, Nov. 15: The municipal corporation is carrying out a baseline survey in the town centre district - 670 acres between Ashok Nagar and Maharshi College Road.

The survey intends to build a database, which will help the authorities gauge the difference that the smart city project will make five years after it's implementation.

The survey, which started yesterday and is likely to continue for another day, intends to cover 40,000 people or 10,000 households, including business establishments.

Dutch organisation Bernard van Leer Foundation, which is a partner of the civic body along with Hamara Bachpan Campaign and Delhi-based participatory research and evaluation body Praxix, has engaged volunteers for the survey.

The survey intends to find out personal information of residents above 18 years, employment type, income level, house or establishment ownership, Internet and telephone connectivity, access to education and mobility, public space and their use, especially for children, and community centre.

The questionnaire also has queries on the type of housing in which the respondents live, water supply source and consumption amount,sanitation facilities, including the frequency of garbage collection.

On the social development front, the people are being asked questions on education, health centres and their distance from the residential locality. The survey also has queries on pedestrian-friendly roads and street lights.

Country representative of Bernard van Leer Foundation Dharitri Patnaik said: "The survey will definitely help the civic administration know how the city centre has developed qualitatively and quantitatively five years after the implementation of the smart city project. The questions also have points on the formation and functionality of resident welfare associations and e-governance initiatives."

Sources said Bhubaneswar was probably going to be the only city in the country to have a child and family-friendly smart city.

"In order to include the issues during the launch of the citizens' interactions, the civic body first took suggestions from the children and their opinions will be included in the final smart city document,'' said a senior corporation official.

Municipal commissioner Krishan Kumar said: "In order to include children, the smart city logo has their picture and we have included their causes in all our citizens' connect initiatives. We are going to include their suggestions in our smart city proposal."

Patnaik said: "Students of Sikshya O Anusandhan (SOA) University and Centurion University of Technology and Management are taking part as volunteers after they were trained by social researchers."

Siv Souvam Prakash, an engineering student, who was a respondent to the questionnaire, said: "The survey will help the civic authorities plan their smart city document."

MTech student Satish Kumar Biswal from SOA University said: "Yesterday, we covered Ashok Nagar and Bapuji Nagar and today we finished the survey at Kharavela Nagar, Master Canteen Square and Station Square areas."