Rourkela: Rourkela has emerged among the top 15 pioneer cities within the country in the ‘Streets for People and India Cycles for Change’ programme. This programme has been conducted by the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs and ended recently. CEO Rourkela Smart City Limited and ADM Rourkela, Dr Subhankar Mohapatra gave this information here Wednesday. “There were several challenges for Rourkela to feature as one of the smart cities in the country. The ‘Streets for People and India Cycles for Change’ was one of the programmes. However, we successfully overcame the challenges,” Mohapatra stated. The CEO expressed happiness over the development. “The challenge started virtually February 22, last year.
The competition was tough because more than 50 cities participated,” Mohapatra informed. “We did several things to be part of this unique challenge and boost Rourkela’s image. We constructed roads, pavements, pedestrian and cycle tracks, beautification of various places. These aspects gave us good mileage and a head start. Rourkela now has found a place amongst the top 15 pioneer cities in the country. This is a very good achievement and we wanted to share this with all of you,” said the CEO. Also, the different activities held during the FIH Men’s Hockey World Cup helped in image building of the city, Mohapatra pointed out. The award function will be held at Pimpri-Chinchwad town of Maharashtra during the National Workshop to be held January 12 and 13.
“Besides, the Rourkela Municipal Corporation (RMC) is going to receive the Swachh Bharat Award tomorrow (Thursday),” informed the CEO. Recently, two Bloomberg officials had visited the city to assess the situation. The city had received USD 1 million from ‘Bloomberg Philanthropy’ for the development work carried out and the unique work done by RMC in providing cold storage facilities to small businessmen during Covid