BHUBANESWAR: Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL) has got 14 months to complete its ongoing projects in the state capital and become a self-reliant agency as the Centre has extended the timeline of the Smart Cities Mission (SCM) till June next year.
The timeline extension has come as a big relief for BSCL as its fate was hanging in balance after the Housing and Development Department gave indications last month that the state government may have to discontinue it in the absence of any grant or extension of timeline for its operation by the Ministry.
The Ministry, however, has made it clear no new projects will be allowed to be taken, while the existing ones will have to be wrapped up within the given timeline, a BSCL official said. Apart from the extension of the timeline for completion of the SCM projects, smart city officials have been asked to perfect their SOPs as well as a business plan and other initiatives to become a self-reliant organisation during the given duration.
BSCL officials said under the smart cities mission project, so far 19 projects including 10 major projects have been completed while two projects are continuing. “The second phase of the surveillance system is under implementation for installation of 350 CCTV cameras at 81 new locations of the city while another city beautification project on drainage channel no 10 near BDA city centre and Satya Nagar is also in progress at an investment of around Rs 10 crore,” said the official.
He said there will be no pending smart city projects in the city after the completion of the two pending ones. On the other hand, he said, as part of making the agency self-reliant within a year, the BSCL will focus on better management of Janpath Road, two multi-level car parking units at Saheed Nagar and Raj Mahal and the new BMC-ICOMC building. “We hope Bhubaneswar will be chosen as a mentor for cities to be picked up for the development of new smart cities in Odisha and other parts of the country in the near future,” the officer said.
Smart city efforts