BHUBANESWAR: The NITI Aayog will help the state government prepare a blueprint of the metropolitan development region spanning the coastal belt of Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Paradip and Puri.
Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi in the budget this year had announced plans for establishing the metropolitan development region covering 7,000 sq km and encompassing Bhubaneswar, Khurda, Jatni, Cuttack, Paradip and Puri to give a push to the state’s urban coverage which at present comprises just about 17 per cent.
Sources in the H&UD department said the 7,000 sq km region will also be known as Greater Bhubaneswar region. It will be a large geographical area covering multiple cities with shared infrastructure and transportation network. The region will include metro, a new satellite city on the outskirts of the capital as well as advanced urban infrastructure and facilities.
The area will also be developed as sustainable economic hub with industries, services, education and health for provisioning better employment opportunities as well as improving living standards of the people. It will be developed on the lines of other metropolitan development regions like Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Pune and Nashik, the sources said.
A five-member delegation of NITI Aayog headed by its principal economic advisor Anna Roy held meeting with the collectors and other officials of these districts earlier this week to discuss the proposed project in detail. The national public policy think tank has sought demographic data and project information from four districts - Khurda, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur and Puri - at the earliest for going ahead with the blueprint work.
“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 government’s plan of developing a metropolitan development region,” said Khurda collector Chanchal Rana.
With multiple projects including large-scale industrial investments as well as capital region ring road and mass rapid transit system (MRTS) in the pipeline, sources said NITI Aayog is keen to support the state government in transforming the region into a major urban hub. Apart from realising Odisha government’s goal of expanding urban cover, the region will also be a push in the direction of making the state a one trillion economy.
H&UD department officials said, 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.