BHUBANESWAR: On hold for not proving to be of much help, the digital door numbering (DDN) project that aimed to create a uniform address system for the city residents will now be implemented by the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) in new form with holding tax, trade license and other utility service numbers integrated into it for better use of the initiative.
The much-hyped project has already missed its deadline by at least a year and a half and will soon be entering into its fourth year of implementation.The civic body had signed an agreement with two firms - Navayuga Spatial Technologies Pvt Ltd and Zipper Pvt Ltd - in June 2020 for implementation of the project to create a uniform address system for all urban dwellings using geo-spatial technology and combining them with standard methodologies in street address and door numbering.
However, the project work remained stalled till February 2021 due to Covid-19 pandemic after which it was rolled out on a pilot basis in three wards. BMC set a deadline of March 2022 to cover all residential and commercial property in the project. However, till now only around one-fourth of the residential and commercial property have been covered. An official from BMC said out of around 2.07 lakh odd property, both residential and commercial identified in the city, only about 50,000 have been covered in the project so far.
He said implementation of the project had to be put on hold midway earlier this year after BMC found DDN in the areas already covered not proving to be of much help.BMC additional commissioner Suryawanshi Mayur Vikas, said the project has now been approved after it was decided that DDN will also contain holding tax and trade licence number.