Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday inaugurated the state’s first town planning scheme under the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) by distributing land ‘pattas’ to residents of four villages on the outskirts of the city.
Naveen distributed the Records of Rights (RoR) to the villagers of Sahajpur, Nargoda, Sijuput and Paikarapur through video-conferencing.
Speaking on the occasion, he said participation of people and communities plays an important role in urban development. Keeping this in view, the BDA has come up with the town planning scheme with participation of people on the periphery of Bhubaneswar for its holistic development, he added.
“I hope that we implement this scheme in a time bound manner and create a model for the rest of our cities to emulate. Cities are the growth engines of our economy. We have to plan our cities in a sustainable manner and enable an organic growth while ensuring safety nets for the vulnerable sections,” said the chief minister.
As many as 58 revenue villages have been identified to be included under the scheme. Initially, the scheme has been approved for 4 villages and 746 acre of land has been taken up for infrastructure development, according to a release of chief minister’s office.
As per the scheme, around 40 per cent of land will be used to develop roads and other infrastructure which will benefit the land owners.
Housing and Urban Development minister Pratap Jena also spoke on the occasion. Several senior officers including chief secretary Asit Tripathy and Development Commissioner Suresh Chandra Mohapatra were present.