Bhubaneswar: In a shot in the arm for the Capital city’s infrastructural growth, Housing and Urban Development (H&UD) Minister, Pratap Jena, announced projects worth more than Rs 500 crore on the occasion of Bhubaneswar Development Authority’s (BDA) foundation day.
Speaking on the 37th anniversary of the BDA which was observed at Soochna Bhawan here, Jena stated that amongst the various plans under town district planning, Baramunda area will have a multi-facility bus terminal worth Rs 174.34 lakhs. Similary, Khurda will also have a multi-facility vegetable haat worth Rs 30.50 lakhs that will cater to about 498 shops.
“Subudhipur area will get housing projects worth Rs 200 crore. Similarly Kalinga Vihar will have projects worth 92 crores. Projects worth Rs. 165 crores will be solely dedicated for development of slum dwellers. Under different planning schemes, about 64.9 kms of Ring Road will be developed and beautification of city will be carried out,” Jena said.
However, Jena emphasised that the BDA needs to expedite its works and should focus on making the city pollution free and people-friendly. He also mentioned that the BDA employees will get double promotion for quality work and incentives will also be given on extraordinary performances.
Giving an honest and critical evaluation of the BDA, Principal Secretary of H&UD, G. Mathivathanan said the authority’s own regulations need to be looked into for certain cases. He is of the opinion that under the BDA’s current master plan a lot of land has been acquired by the organisation for future development, which, to be put simply, is “harassment of the general public.”
“Under the new Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP), we have proposed to acquire land for which we have immediate need. CDP will be implemented in accordance with the Chief Minister’s 5T plan. There will also be scope for development of slum-dwellers. BDA needs to speed up its works,” Mathivathanan commented.
Echoing his thoughts, Prem Chandra Chaudhary, Vice-Chairman of BDA, added that the BDA needs to be more public oriented. Requesting the employees to treat people with utmost dignity, Prem suggested that everyone involved with the BDA should be more polite with the general public.
“There is an urgent need to make BDA a public-friendly and approachable authority. We need to be patient with the complainants and address them even if their grievance does not fall under our ambit,” Prem said.
Meanwhile, Minister of state for Science & Technology Ashok Chandra Panda— who was present at the event—said that more community centres should be opened and parks that were damaged during the summer storm Fani should go for a major makeover.