Centre Set To Recommend 3 Projects Of Bhubaneswar Smart City To Other Cities

Bhubaneswar: The Centre is set to recommend to other cities in the country to adopt three projects of the Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL).

According to sources, the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has assigned the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur to prepare a study report on the Bhubaneswar Operation Centre (BOC), adaptive traffic system and socially smart city under the Smart Cities and Academia Towards Action & Research (SAAR) programme.

“We have the adaptive traffic system installed at major intersections and vantage points. The automated mechanism with integrated GPRS sends feeds to the next signal regarding incoming vehicle. It is an adaptive system and not a static one. The timing of traffic flow at the intersection varies considering the rush of vehicle,” TOI quoted BSCL general manager Kamaljit Das as saying.

He further said the BSCL’s information technology-backed facilities in collection of holding tax, obtaining trade licence, parking space management have also proved highly beneficial for the people. “The payment of the holding tax has been made completely online. Besides, residents of the smart city can avail different services like telephone, water and power connection without producing residential certificates due to the digital door numbering (DDN) system,” Das added.

The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) introduced the DDN system in 2019 and it is now being managed by the BSCL. By putting the DDN in the application form, the service providing agency can get details of the residential proof of the customer.

The socially smart project has also helped improve the conditions of the slums by grooming the local youths. The peer leaders, also called Pragati Sathis, who include young boys and girls from slums, have been trained to take up issues and challenges affecting their communities. They have played a major role in ensuring open defecation-free (ODF) localities, cleanliness, segregation and removal of garbage besides checking school dropout and stopping sale of liquor.