Bhubaneswar: The state government Thursday signed a note of technical cooperation with Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, India, a German development agency, for availing technical assistance for smart city projects in Bhubaneswar.
On behalf of the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany, the GIZ India is providing technical assistance under Integrated Sustainable Urban Transport Systems for Smart Cities in India (SMART-SI IT) project. The GIZ will provide €4 million (around Rs 31 crore) as technical assistance to three Indian smart cities-Bhubaneswar, Coimbatore and Kochi.
The note of cooperation was signed by Housing and Urban Development (H&UD) special secretary Prem Kumar Jha, vice-chairman of Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) Krishan Kumar and GIZ Project Manager (Smart-SUT) Sarah Habersack in the presence of H&UD Minister Niranjan Pujari here at Secretariat.
The objective of this project is to improve planning and implementation of sustainable and integrated urban transport systems and solutions.
GIZ will support the city in developing an integrated urban transport system providing sustainable mobility solutions for the citizens. The project will support Bhubaneswar in becoming a smart city as part of the German support to smart cities, sources said.
The first activity under this collaboration would be preparing a Low Carbon Mobility Plan (LCMP), as a key strategy document for Bhubaneswar.
Pujari said, “The existing urban mobility systems should be changed in such a way that it would help in making cities more livable.”
With population growth, cities have tended to sprawl and increased travel distances have made non-motorised modes impossible to use which has made access to livelihoods, particularly for the poor difficult, he added.
Stating that the mobility of the people without environmental pollution is a positive indicator of city urban transportation, he said merging of non-motorised traffic with motorised traffic not only affects the efficiency of speed of the traffic but also contributes to congestions, pollution and accidents. “The state is taking adequate and appropriate steps to strengthen urban transport system in a planned and prudent manner with the objective of mobility for all,” he said.
To strengthen the urban transportation system in capital region, the state government has constituted Capital Region Urban Transport (CRUT), a new entity for Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Puri, Khurda, Jatni and other adjoining areas.
Pujari further stated that many innovative modes of transports like e-Rickshaw and e-Mobility are under active consideration of the government.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has made a visit to the smart city control room being set up at Bhawani Mall in Sahid Nagar and took stock of the progress made on various smart city projects. Speaking to media, Naveen said the control room will start functioning in next three weeks and take smart city government to a next level.
