Bhubaneswar, Oct. 30: A smart move is set to change the face of the town centre here.

The town centre, which is spread over 670 acres, will be re-developed as the only smart district. The revamp will be part of the smart city programme.

The town centre area has now become much bigger and is defined by houses fronting Janpath on the east, Udyan Marg on the south, railway track on the west and Maharshi College Road on the north. Other key landmarks in this smart district include Ashoka Market, Master Canteen Square, city railway station, city bus terminal, Ram Mandir, Rajmahal Square and its surrounding areas. The municipal council today unanimously approved the new plan.

Once the revamp takes place under the project, the smart district will have multi-modal transportation hub near the railway station, re-development of Master Canteen Square, affordable housing projects for mixed income group, transit-oriented development, transforming Janpath into a 'high street' or primary business centre and a lake zone.

The government had earlier planned to develop the heritage district as the second one. However, consultation with experts and study of central guidelines made it clear that there could be only one smart district under the project.

When citizens voted for urban mobility as the top "smart solution", the town centre had received the highest number of votes to be developed as the "smart district".

Municipal commissioner Krishan Kumar said: "The town centre has tremendous potential of transforming into Bhubaneswar's central business district. It has the potential to have multi-modal transport facilities such as road, rail, city buses, sidewalks and cycle paths. However, priority will be given to develop transit-oriented non-motorised transport to have sustainable development with less pollution.''

A senior planner involved with the project said: "The re-development plan of the town centre will transform the area into a self-contained district based on principles of co-habitation, jobs and all types of urban services and facilities including recreational space, amphitheatres and green spaces.''

Interestingly, the re-designed Bhubaneswar town centre will be linked to the proposed lake zone development plan so that citizens can have a nice waterfront. The lake zone development plan includes creation of separate recreational space for kids, youths and the elderly.

Among other major decisions taken at the council meeting, the councillors felt that after November 5 residents should be given another chance to enrol themselves under the public distribution system (PDS). A special cell at the corporation will be opened for the purpose. The city has around 1.3 lakh PDS cardholders.

The corporation also decided to have more outreach programmes among people, students and youths so that the city can score high on the 'citizen connect' initiatives that are crucial to make the city a top scorer and eligible for inclusion in the list of 20 cities where the project will be implemented in the first phase.

"We are going to have an exposure programme for our councillors so that they can understand the smart city concept better and explain it to people," said mayor Ananta Narayan Jena.

After the council meeting, the authorities decided to allow 19 kiosks of women vendors near the Regional Science Centre. Sixty-seven women vendors had created a ruckus at the official residence of a local MLA on Wednesday and the BMC office on Thursday.