Bhubaneswar: The Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL) on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Nagpur-based National Environment Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) for its projects under City Investments to Innovate, Integrate and Sustain (CITIIS) programme.
Speaking on the occasion, BSCL CEO Prem Chandra Chaudhary said the association with NEERI will be highly helpful for the CITIIS projects as it will be responsible for environmental, solid waste, water and sanitation related technical support including preparation of the overall masterplan and concept plan/zoning plan. It will also review the work produced by BSCL team and provide technical advice/feedback for similar best practices across the globe.
Under the CITIIS programme, the city plans to enhance the quality of public open spaces through Bhubaneswar-Active (B-Active) proposal as it won the challenge in February 2019 from among 67 Indian Smart Cities.
The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) with the French Development Agency (AFD) and European Union jointly launched the CITIIS in July 2018 as part of the “Program to Fund Smart City Project.’’ B-Active proposal will receive a grant of nearly Rs 80 crore in three years of its implementation.
The B-Active projects focus on improvement of five major components of streets, water, parks and open spaces, sports and playgrounds and heritage.
Under the component water, the city has proposed to improve the natural drainage channels No. 7 and 10 and revive heritage water tanks in the Old Town.
The MoU with NEERI will help BSCL in system designing and modelling of water-related projects under the CITIIS Programme as the institute is the leader is the country and has successfully implemented many such projects across India.
The NEERI will first extend its technical expertise towards the short-term quick win project along the drainage channel No. 10 proposed as a pilot initiative to create a waste water park and urban agriculture on the premises of BDA City Centre.
Besides Chaudhary, representative of NEERI Dr Nitin Goyal was present during the signing of MoU. On behalf of BSCL, CITIIS Project In-Charge Diptirani Sahoo signed the papers.