Bhubaneswar: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has chalked out massive plans for the Odisha Hockey Men’s World Cup-2018 in November. Once these are rolled out, the city would witness a total transformation in three core areas: Infrastructure, beautification and ambience. The civic body would execute all the three main projects.
MECHANICAL SWEEPING
The civic body would have 80km stretch of main road under mechanical sweeping, for which the tender process has already been initiated. With that, the sanitation situation will improve a lot by the time the hockey tournament is on. There would be nearly 100 e-toilets across the city, making the environment clean and green. The stainless steel e-toilets may have auto cleaning facility as well.
DRAINAGE
To ensure better drainage system during the rainy season and beyond, temporary measures would be taken to end water logging as the Works Department may take some more time to implement the drainage master plan. Once the plan is in place, major roads and their sides will remain waterless. Development of a continuous flyover bisecting the city’s lifeline, National Highway, without providing a way for draining rain water has resulted in a major problem. The proposed master plan by the Works Department is likely to address this vital issue.
Meanwhile, the cleaning of secondary and tertiary drains across the city is nearing completion. “We will also take up cleaning of the basins of the 10 natural drainage channels crisscrossing the city’s spread. The work will be over latest by the second week of June,” said a senior BMC official.
WALL PAINTINGS
Taking a cue from city beautification during the Asian Athletics Championships -2017, the state government has decided to doll up the city with the central theme of hockey. As BMC has always been in the limelight for its execution of the wall painting work, artists commissioned by the civic body would paint the city with their creative hockey-centric ideas.
PAN CITY TRANSPORT
Apart from the BMC initiatives to better the city’s civic conditions and beautify the surroundings, collectively there would be more in terms of pan city transport with more city buses and non-motorised alternatives.
While the Capital Region Urban Transport (formerly Bhubaneswar Puri Transport Services) will have 200 new buses in two phases, besides the 110 old buses, the state capital will have a robust fleet of 319 buses before the Odisha Hockey Men’s World Cup-2018. Similarly, there would be more than 200 bus shelters (bus stops) across the city so that more and more people can use public transport.
Under the Public Bicycle Sharing System under the Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL), Mobike would introduce 1,500 modern cycles across a select area. Within three years’ time the number of cycles is expected to go up to 6,000. The modern cycles would be available at nearest docking stations and mobile apps and QR codes would be used to issue the bike from a docking station.
There is also an e-rickshaw project under BSCL, which with the public bicycle-sharing system, would help in reducing the pollution level in the city’s air.
TEMPORARY CCC
Sources also said that the temporary command and control centre (CCC), under construction in an area of 10,000 sq ft at BMC Bhawani Mall, would be inaugurated around the last week of June. It will coordinate processes like monitoring adaptive traffic control system, tracking of solid waste carrying trucks and vehicles, city buses, fire service personnel and many organisations. However, the permanent CCC will be established at the permanent BMC Building at its proposed site in Unit IX area opposite Satyanagar cremation ground.
