BHUBANESWAR: The state government has set July end of 2023 as the target for completion of construction of the Inter-State Bus Terminal (ISBT) in the capital. The target was set after a review of the project by 5T secretary VK Pandian who visited the site on Thursday. It was revealed at the review meeting with officials that 85 per cent of the project has been completed and the civil works will be over by June-end. Pandian directed officials to complete the entire construction work by July. ISBT is Odisha’s first global transit system having capacity of managing 2,000 buses per day. It is developed under the 5T initiative of the government.
Sources said, the inter-state terminal is built on 11 acre at a cost of Rs 180 crore, while 4 acre more has been kept aside for expansion in the future. It will have different facilities for passengers including a food court, escalator, elevator and pick-up and drop-off points. There will also be parking space for cars and two-wheelers besides facilities for prepaid auto-rickshaws, taxis, and taxi aggregators. An Aahaar Plus centre will also be set up on the premises for passengers. Steps will be taken for the relocation of vendors who have been displaced for the transformation of the bus terminal. The cities where the buses will ply from ISBT include Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad, Raipur, Ranchi, Kolkata and Bengaluru.
ISBT project was approved by the state cabinet presided over by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on September 27, 2019. A target of two years was set for the completion of the project. The chief minister had laid the foundation stone for a modern bus terminal at Baramunda at a cost of Rs 105 crore in April 2011. Later the project was upgraded to an ISBT.