Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited To be Highlighted at Niti Aayog's Investment Meet

Infrastructure development within the Bhubaneswar Town Centre District (BTCD) is all set to get a major boost as the Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL) is going to participate in an investment meet, “Integrated Multi Utilities Project” for the BTCD, to be organised by the Niti Aayog.

The Ernst and Young is the knowledge partner in organising the event.

The Integrated Multi Utilities Project for development and maintenance would include components like 24X7 water supply, recycled water supply, storm water drainage, solid waste management, 24X7 energy supply, underground cabling of power supply, smart energy metre, road and pavement works and their improvement, tree plantation, street furnishing and smart street lighting.

The Niti Aayog, the Odisha Government and the BSCL are organising the meet.

According to plans, these infrastructure-based public services would be handed over to a single utility operator. The selected operator would undertake one time Capex (capital expenditure) to redevelop infrastructure, operate and maintain these services and recover the operations and maintenance payments from the Government.

For example, while the Public Health Engineering Organisation (PHEO) is currently supplying water per capita 248 litres in a day for about the hours, the 24X7 system under the Smart City Proposal (SCP) is 160 litres per capita in a day for 24 hours. Similarly, there would be centres for better waste collection, segregation and reuse of garbage.

In the BTCD area, development is going to happen as per the SCP by retrofitting and redeveloping 985 acres of land around the main railway station into a 24X7 vibrant destination that applies the features of Smart Cities in a prescribed area. While BTCD holds 3 per cent of the BMC area, the existing population is around 50,000 with 11,167 households and a net population density of 335 persons per hectare.