BHUBANESWAR: Works minister Prithiviraj Harichandan on Sunday said plans are afoot to construct a new secretariat, Assembly building and a world-class convention centre to be named as ‘Odisha Mandap’, in the state capital.
While the proposal for a new secretariat and Assembly building is in the conceptual stage, land has been identified in Chandrasekharpur area for the Odisha Mandap which will have capacity to accommodate 10,000 people. The Odisha Mandap will have all modern facilities for hosting conclaves, summits, meetings, cultural events and small to large gatherings.
Speaking to mediapersons on the sidelines of a seminar on ‘Recent advancements in iconic building projects’ jointly organised by the Works department and the Indian Building Congress, Harichandan said, the state capital does not have a modern convention centre to host events of larger scale. The proposed Odisha Mandap will solve this problem.
The minister also said that the state government is now planning to go for an underground metro in place of elevated metro rail system as envisaged earlier. The change has been necessitated by various logistical and urban planning concerns. “The traffic density of the city does not favour an elevated structure. Elevated metro rail will also mar the beauty of Bhubaneswar. Therefore, it has been decided to opt for an underground metro system,” he said.
The Works minister also clarified that the metro project will be executed by the Urban Development department and the Works department will have no role in it.
At the seminar, the minister said the state is prone to disasters, floods, cyclones and occasional earthquakes. Therefore, it is crucial that future infrastructure projects are designed to be disaster-resilient and incorporated with modern technologies. He stressed the importance of using advanced knowledge and techniques to build environmentally-sustainable and robust structures.