Bhubaneswar: Continuing its tradition of receiving awards for innovative ideas and citizen-centric initiatives, Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL) today received City Investments to Innovate Integrate and Sustain (CITIIS) award in New Delhi during the Smart City CEOs Conference.Themed under Public Open Spaces, Bhubaneswar’s project B-Active (Be-Active/Bhubaneswar Active) has the vision to maximize the use of the city’s assets – it’s beautiful parks, forests, streets, waterways, heritage temple precincts, public and school playgrounds to provide opportunities to equal and informal recreation and promote healthy activities for all types of citizens.Names of Bhubaneswar’s major sites under the B-Active Project will be: 1. Resilient Greenways2. NMT Priority Network3. Restoring Blueways4. Waterfront Promenade5. BBSR Shared Playground Projects6. Janpath Sports Complex7. Reviving Water Heritage ProjectGeneral Manager of BSCL Saroj Kumar Swain received the award from Minister of State Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep S Puri. Secretary Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs DS Mishra was also present on the occasion, among other dignitaries.BSCL will get Rs 79.3 crore as grant for the implementation of the B-Active Project.B-Active also doubles as a platform to:• Empower citizens to co-create and manage their neighbourhoods and open spaces.• Revitalize its water ways, tanks and streets and act as sponges for capturing, storing and cleaning its water systems.• Reuse its landscapes as productive spaces offering opportunities/ urban agriculture, interacting with nature.• Reclaim public spaces to engage for cultural, arts and social activities and • Raise the profile of organised sport & active recreation.CITIIS is the main component of the ‘Program to fund Smart City projects through a Challenge Process’ launched by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) in July 2018.CITIIS aims to foster sustainable, innovative and participatory approaches to build projects within the Smart City Mission. Under the CITIIS component, up to 15 projects were selected through a challenge process from 67 smart city proposals. Selected projects and SPVs would be part of a unique experimentation laboratory helping to highlight and address specific issues faced by SPVs across India in developing innovative approaches for urban renewal projects.Selected Smart City SPVs will be provided financial assistance in the form of grant and technical support in the form of tailor-made mentorship (expertise), over a period of three years.This support is managed and coordinated by a Program Management Unit (PMU) at the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) in New Delhi. CITIIS is financed by the French Development Agency (AFD) and the European Union (EU).
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