Bhubaneswar: The municipal corporation southwest zone office will soon gets its own building after civic authorities cleared encroachments on the land identified for the project.
The government's central eviction monitoring committee carried out an eviction drive on the identified spot at Jagamara near Khandagiri and freed up 15,000sqft of government land on Wednesday.
Amid opposition from local residents, the authorities successfully demolished six tin-sheet houses, seven thatched houses, three bamboo houses, three makeshift shops and four wood cabins. On Thursday, it freed an additional 1.5 acres. It demolished six tin-sheet, seven thatched and 14 bamboo houses, 17 other shops and houses, and four wood cabins.
"The zonal commissioner made a request for the drive. Though local residents opposed the drive, things were settled and we freed the land," said the Bhubaneswar Development Authority's liaison officer S.S. Mohanty.
Besides its Goutam Nagar headquarters, the civic body has three zone offices at Rental Colony, Chandrasekharpur and Old Town, all of which function from rented spaces.
"We will construct separate buildings for each office. The north zone office site was finalised earlier and we got the land for the southwest office now," said a civic official.
The civic body initiated steps to hire an agency to prepare a uniform architectural design for all three offices last December. "The agency is in the process of preparing the design," said the official.
He said once the design is finalised, they would begin preparing a detailed project report. "The report and a proposal will be sent to the government for approval."
Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena said the decentralised system of governance helped them and the citizens. "The zone offices aim to facilitate people in getting quality service and reduce the need to visit the headquarters each time. The permanent offices will aid the process," said Jena.