Bhubaneswar shines the brightest

February 03,2016 | Posted By Admin

A rich cultural heritage mingled with a strong economic base helped the “Temple City” to secure first position in the India Smart Cities challenge. Bhubaneswar has been the proud participant of the competition held to improve the lives of citizens. The main purpose is to inspire innovations in cities and promote economic opportunities in the country.

Bhubaneswar is a smart city humming with cluster of magnificent temples, legendary history and culture. This modern city has been designed by German architect Otto Konigsberger with an endeavour to shape the city in serving as an administrative centre for the state. It outshone all the other cities and emerged as a hub for education, health and information technology.

The city took extra mile in achieving distinctions such as:

• Awarded with the title of 3^rd best place to “Do business in India” by World Bank.
• Nominated as the only Tier-2 city in the country to host the top five Indian IT giants: Wipro, TCS, Infosys, Tech Mahindra and Mind tree.
• Ranked as one of the planned four “Information Technology Investment Regions in India”.

The Smart cities Mission focuses on improving the quality of life of people by bringing in technology advancements and economic growth. Each city has to plan and create its own goals keeping in mind their geography/settings. Bhubaneswar has already embarked its successful journey by being the first winner in the challenge. The city has started drafting the Smart City proposal with a comprehensive citizen-driven approach. This proposal is a brain-child of the citizens, BMC, other governmental and civil society citizens accompanied with rigorous brainstorming, idea generation and project visualisation. Here is a detailed plan to promote Smart growth:

• Bhubaneswar approach: The complete plan moves around the “7 smart city pillars’’ named Governance, City planning and design, urban utilities, urban mobility, Shelter, Economic development and Social development. The approach was developed by the feedbacks of citizens.
• Smart Transport: Bhubaneswar is gearing up to provide a user-friendly transport system including construction of dedicated cycle-tracks, footpaths and affordable public transportation system to help its citizens move around the city in most comfortable manner possible.
• Smart Waste Management:The city has been recognised as one of the best places to do business in India due to its high quality infrastructure facilities. Ever-increasing volume of waste is the most challenging task which every state is facing today. BMC is giving all it has got in order to manage city’s waste services fromrecycling, garbage collection,access to public toilets and many more to mention.
• BBSR Initiatives: A robust proposal will be created under the BMC’s leadership. Many plans are already in pipeline encompassing online citizen services, housing, transportation, urban planning and waste management. The list does not end here. Citizens are putting in their efforts to create exemplary solutions.E-Municipality services are one of the initiatives which have significantly improved transparency in ULB’s in the state.

As it is said “Failing to plan is planning to fail”. Bhubaneswar has planned it all to shine as a winner in whatever it does.Let’s put our hands together and celebrate the achievement of the city .Now it’s a high time to turn their proposal dreams into reality and bring about the change the city always wanted to see.