BHUBANESWAR: Around 20-acre of land that the state government had alienated in favour of the Health Department for the proposed Tata Cancer Care Centre at Baranga will now be handed over to the Housing and Urban Development (H&UD) Department for construction of the depot and maintenance office of Bhubaneswar Metro Rail Project.
A decision in this regard was taken by the government after the Odisha Cancer Care Foundation approved the decision of its Board of Directors for the closure of the cancer care project. The state government had provided 19.40-acre land to the Health Department for establishing the green field Tata Cancer Care Centre in collaboration with Tata Trust.
However, Health Secretary Shalini Pandit, in her letter to the Revenue Department, stated that the proposed cancer care project would be closed as it was not being pursued by the Tata Trust. “As the land is not being utilised for the purpose for which it was alienated, the Health Department is willing to relinquish the same in favour of the Revenue and Disaster Management Department for subsequent alienation in favour of the H&UD department for construction of the depot and maintenance office of the Bhubaneswar Metro Rail Project,” Pandit stated.
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has entered into an MoU with Bhubaneswar Metro Rail Corporation (BMRC) for implementation of the first phase of the metro rail project from Bhubaneswar airport to Trisulia Square for 6,255 crore rupees. They have already initiated the process for construction of the boundary wall of the depot near Baranga for phase I of the mass rapid transit system (MRTS). Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is slated to lay the foundation of the metro project on January 1.