Bhubaneswar: A city coordination committee meeting was conducted in BDA on 24th Apr’ 23. Recently formed City Coordination Committee (CCC) focusses on instilling best practices & integration between various dept., city agencies working towards making the state capital far more liveable. Today’s meeting focussed on various preparatory & planning works related to the proposed METRO. Slated to
connect millennial city of Cuttack with Odisha’s administrative capital – Bhubaneswar, the proposed Metro’s draft alignment and its corelation with existing city functions & major proposed activities, etc. were discussed during the meeting.
The director of operations Odisha Rail InfrastructureDevelopment Ltd (ORIDL – a JV of GoO & Ministry of Railways) made a presentation which detailed out aspects metro alignment, prudent need of multi-agency integration, etc. The integrated & techsavvy approach taken by the city authorities in this regard hints towards establishing highest benchmarks wrt quality, safety & timeliness of metro works in Bhubaneswar. Officials from almost all line departments involved in the city planning, operations & management were part of the meeting including Commerce & Transport Dept., WATCO, Revenue & Disaster Management, General Administration, BSNL, Energy, GAIL, Works dept., Water resources, BDA, NHAI, CRUT, E&IT. Presided by Vice Chairman, BDA the meeting provided brief information on the preparation of DPR by ORIDL for which Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) is being appointed. Availability of necessary data, transport & mobility trends in the city proposed projects, developmental works, etc. were also discussed during the meeting. VC, BDA who is also the chairman of the city coordination committee requested all the officers present to ensure utmost swiftness in the data sharing and inter-dept. integration to complete preparation of DPR. A Master Plan will also be prepared to for a metro network covering other areas of Bhubaneswar, Khordha, Cuttack & Puri. Appearing to be a herculean task to prepare the DPR in this short span, the authorities have taken it as a challenge
keeping in mind the benchmarks of best of the METRO systems globally. MD, IDCO, Commissioner, BMC and Addl. Commissioner Police, were also present in the meeting and assured complete support and cooperation to the ORIDL to ensure world-class infrastructure development.
Bhubaneswar known for its excellence in urban planning has set an example of pro-active planning/governance by undertaking metro project, way ahead than many of Indian cities. It aims at establishing city’s growth trajectory in most sustainable manner by providing mass rapid transportation services at city’s early days of rapid growth. Experts say it will have immense positive benefit for the city & capital region altogether by curtailing dependencies on the private vehicles while providing an affordable, safer, cleaner, comfortable & faster mobility option. It is also said that city’s award winning MoBus system if planned well in coordination with proposed Metro, Odisha’s state capital will set a benchmark in the country of being one of the most progressive, well-planned, inclusive, accessible, safer – A LIVEABLE city.
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