CUTTACK: State Housing and Urban Development Minister Krushna Chandra Mahapatra on Tuesday inaugurated the Vishwanath Pandit Central Library, one of the state’s most modern public libraries, at Badambadi in the city.
Mahapatra said, built over three acre at an investment of Rs 42 crore, the library is designed to promote reading, research, innovation and lifelong learning, providing world-class facilities to students, researchers, academicians and citizens alike.
“It will usher in a new era of knowledge and research in Cuttack and Odisha. The library would play a transformative role in strengthening the state’s reading culture and creating an enabling environment for academic excellence and innovation,” he said.
Developed by Odisha State Police Housing and Welfare Corporation Ltd, the three-storey smart library houses over one lakh books and offers seating capacity for more than 1,000 readers. The facility includes a dedicated e-library, children’s reading zone, research section, central air-conditioning, high-speed internet, photocopying services, an 84-seat auditorium, audio-visual conference room and a 72-seat cafeteria.
The minister also inaugurated the library management system (LMS) and felicitated 35 eminent publishers from Cuttack during the function. Emphasising the state government’s commitment to the holistic development of Cuttack, the minister said every effort is being made to transform the city into a cleaner, greener and more vibrant urban centre. He assured that all developmental requirements of the city would receive priority attention from the government.
A special logo for the year-long celebrations commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) was also unveiled. The foundation stone for a modern Goshala to be developed over five acre at Gurdijhatia at an estimated cost of `21 crore was laid virtually by the minister.