Bhubaneswar: The NITI Aayog will help Odisha prepare a blueprint of the metropolitan region, covering multiple cities with shared infrastructure and transportation network.
This 7,000 sq km region, spanning the coastal belt of Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Paradip and Puri, will be known as Greater Bhubaneswar region.
According to official sources, a five-member delegation of NITI Aayog headed by its principal economic advisor Anna Roy held a meeting with the collectors and other officials of these districts on February 22 to discuss strategies for the economic development of the Bhubaneswar-Cuttack-Puri-Paradip region.
The project aims to boost Odisha’s urban development goals leading up to 2036, the state’s centenary year.
Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi had introduced the ‘New City Development’ scheme during his budget presentation for the fiscal year 2025-26 for transforming and expanding the state’s urban cover. The long-term vision included establishment of a metropolitan development region, aligning with the state’s strategy to enhance urban growth and establish these areas as key socio-economic hubs with an eye on achieving the target of a $1.5 trillion economy by 2047.
The region will be developed on the lines of other metropolitan development regions like Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Pune and Nashik, as a sustainable economic hub with industries, services, education and health for provisioning better employment opportunities and a more liveable experience.
It will also include a metro, a new satellite city on the outskirts of the capital as well as advanced urban infrastructure and facilities.
“The Aayog has asked us to provide available data on district population, current status of industries, projects in the pipeline and the annual budget size and expenditure. The data will be used to prepare the blueprint for systematic implementation of the upcoming projects to realise the government’s plan of developing a metropolitan development region,” Khurda collector Chanchal Rana told TNIE.
Such development planning will also be extended to other major growth centres in the state strategically to transform the urban landscape into engines of growth, H&UD department officials added.
