BHUBANESWAR : In a major infrastructure push, the Odisha government has decided to construct new collectorate buildings in all districts. The upcoming buildings will be integrated with a headquarters sub-collector’s office for effective governance and improving public service delivery.
The decision came after the finalisation of a similar initiative to construct a new secretariat and Assembly building in the state capital. The state-of-the-art public infrastructure is expected to standardise administrative facilities in accordance with the expanding workload.
Officials said the Odisha Bridge and Construction Corporation (OBCC) has been instructed to prepare and submit detailed plans and estimates for the proposed structures, which will follow a uniform model design tailored to district categories and population-based requirements.
Taking into account the population, administrative units, service load and land availability, districts where the buildings will be constructed have been grouped into three categories. Large districts include Mayurbhanj, Sundargarh, Ganjam, Cuttack, Sambalpur, Puri and Keonjhar.
While Angul, Balasore, Khurda, Kandhamal, Rayagada, Jajpur, Balangir, Kalahandi, Bhadrak, Bargarh, Kendrapara, Koraput, Nabarangpur, Dhenkanal and Jagatsinghpur have been categorised as medium districts, Nayagarh, Malkangiri, Nuapada, Sonepur, Jharsuguda, Gajapati, Boudh and Deogarh fall in the small districts category.
As per the typologies of the buildings finalised in the meeting chaired by additional chief secretary of Revenue and Disaster Management department DK Singh, the large districts will have collectorate buildings of 1.7 lakh sq ft, medium districts will get 1.4 lakh sq ft buildings and small category districts will have buildings of one lakh sq ft.
It has been decided that all new buildings must be located in prime urban areas to ensure accessibility and the complexes will be developed with adequate basement parking, full utilisation of floor area ratio and mandatory compliance with the prevalent building codes.
“Each collectorate complex will include one extra floor to accommodate the headquarters-level sub-collector’s office and integrate additional key offices. With elegant architectural design, the buildings will have low maintenance,” said an official.
The government has also decided to build a special circuit house in the city along with the new Rajaswa (Revenue) Bhavan, Biparjaya Parichanana (disaster management) Bhavan and State Institute of Disaster Management (SIDM). The Board of Revenue and office of the RDC (central division) at Cuttack will also have a new building.
‘The special circuit house will be a G+10 building with three basement levels, designed to accommodate visiting dignitaries, officials and delegations. Each floor will include modern workstations and the building will offer a mix of accommodation types - single rooms, suites, one BHK and two-BHK units along with amenities like recreation centre and library,” the official said.