BHUBANESWAR/PARLAKHEMUNDI: Even as the private bus owners launched a statewide agitation on Friday, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik launched the Location Accessible Multimodal Initiative (LAccMI) in Gajapati district while stressing communication is development.
The chief minister flagged off the bus service via video conference from the state capital. “This has started a new trend of development in panchayats, connecting villages with villages, while strengthening social connect as well as the economy of the state,” he said.
In the first phase of the scheme, the chief minister said 36 LAccMI buses will ply in the district, connecting 126 panchayats and seven blocks with the district headquarters. He said 69 new bus stoppages have been built and 64 renovated for the purpose.
The chief minister said the scheme has already been launched in Malkangiri district where 36 buses have started plying on different routes from October 12. “More than 1,000 buses will run across the state under this scheme,” he said adding people can now travel to block headquarters from villages by paying only Rs 5. Naveen said after Malkangiri and Gajapati, four other tribal-dominated districts, Nabarangpur, Koraput, Rayagada and Kandhamal, will be covered under the scheme in the first phase.
He said the government is focussing on the development of villages in the state through ‘Ama Odisha Nabin Odisha’ scheme as part of which people will be able to avail of facilities as in urban areas including banking, internet and digital infrastructure.