Odisha mulls ways to blend IT with Smart City

Sambad English Bureau Published On : Oct 28, 2015 at 5:26 PM Updated On : Oct 28, 2015 at 5:57 PM

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Oct 28:

Based on the recommendation of Odisha Government, established IT companies operating in the state today submitted a project report to the government suggesting ways to implement IT solutions in the Smart City project.

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The report, once approved by the State Government, would be submitted to the center.

A decision on this context was taken today in a meeting chaired by the Chief Secretary Gokul Chandra Pati and attended by IT Secretary Pradeep Jena, Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) Commissioner Krishan Kumar and World Bank International Finance Corporation (IFC) representative Navneet Chaddha. The delegates further deliberated on various ways to enhance e-governance using Information and Communications Technology (ICT).

“We are organising this round table to discuss various ways to improve services offered to the citizens using IT and ICT. Besides, we discussed ways to push for Bhubaneswar, which is soon going to be a smart city,” said Chief Secretary Pati.

“The main idea behind the conference is to understand the perspective of the consultants to see what ICT solutions can be implemented in e-governance. We will prepare a specific proposal for Bhubaneswar once we have their views with us,” said BMC commissioner Kishan Kumar.

Notably, Bhubaneswar along with Rourkela earned themselves places as the only two cities in the list of 98 smart cities in an announcement made by the Union Government on August 27.

The city administrations need to submit a Detailed Project Report (DPR) to the Union Urban Development Ministry highlighting the infrastructure plan they are going to take up on priority.

As announced by the Union Government, the selection of the 20 cities in the first lot would be completed by December 31 this year and in the next two years 40 cities each will be selected for receiving central funding of Rs 500 crore spread over the coming five years. The state governments would also need to provide Rs 500 crore spread over five years for infrastructure development.