Union Cabinet Secretary Sri Pradeep Kumar Sinha admired Odisha for coming out successful in the tough competition among top 20 smart cities in the Country. Sri Sinha said this over a video conference with Chief Secretary Sri Aditya Prasad Padhi on Friday.

The Municipal Commissioner, Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation ( BMC) Sri Kishan Kumar along with Special Secretary Housing & Urban Development Sri Sisir Kumar Ratho joined the Chief Secretary in this video conference.

The video conference was a kind of experience sharing among various ULBs , State Govt and Central Govt. Chief Secretary Sri Padhi said that Govt of Odisha have put in enabling legal, normative and reform measures for making Bhubaneswar a successful smart city and for achieving sustainable urbanization in the State.

He also assured that Govt would provide all help and assistance for the programme and all the projects of Smart City will be implemented in Mission Mode.

Participating in the discussion, Municipal commissioner Sri Kishan Kumar added that Govt has made full assessment of the requirements for sustainable urbanization. New policies have been prepared. Odisha Development Authorities Act has also been suitably updated. Innovative financing models for future urban development have been put in place.

The processes and procedures for citizen interaction and ‘ease of doing business’ have been simplified. The citizen connect programme have also been widened through web-portals. The programmes for basic services like drainage, sewerage, quality power supply, rapid urban transport, internet connectivity etc.  have been streamlined and integrated projects have been taken up. With all these Govt is now in all preparedness to carry forward the smart city programme.