The new office will be build at the plot in Unit-VIII where Bachelor’s Barrack existed. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, June 1: The council of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) will have a new office at the Unit-VIII area — the site where Bachelors’ Barrack once stood.

Once the new multi-storeyed building complex comes up, the present office of the BMC would serve as a zonal office. The corporation on Monday passed a resolution in this connection.

The new office would be close to Secretariat, state Legislative Assembly and other major government offices such as treasury and local head offices of leading banks. The old building of the BMC will be one of the zonal offices looking after the Old Town and nearby areas. There will be three more such zonal offices for the corporation.

A spacious building was always on the BMC’s radar. At present, the civic authorities operate from the space, which once used to be the office of the notified area council (NAC). Even after the growth of the NAC to municipality and then a corporation, the limited space was always a stumbling block in the execution of the day-to-day affairs of the urban local body.

So, the state administration occupied the plot under the Bachelors’ Barrack in Unit-VIII area last year after the old structure was demolished. But even after the demolition, slum dwellers used to live there. They were then transferred to the city’s first transit home in Chandrasekhrapur.

Slum improvement officer and in-charge of information dissemination in BMC, Dillip Kumar Routrai, said: “The council has only taken the decision on a proposal. The engineers will work out the detailed design later. However, it will be a distinct landmark in the city.”

BMC is also working on a proposal to have a zonal system as part of the civic administration. The urban local body has already submitted a proposal to the state government. Once the zonal system comes into vogue, citizens can go to the local office under the BMC with their complaints.

For example, a person staying near Dumduma in ward No. 60 need not visit the central office, almost 10km away, for his official needs such as filing applications and registering complaints. Instead, he can approach the local zonal office to get the problem addressed.

The zonal administration system is currently in vogue at different municipal corporations across the country and it has helped in ensuring better service delivery.