BSCL to participate in investment meet for Bhubaneswar Smart City

Bhubaneswar: Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL) will participate in an investment meet for opportunities in the Smart City area of Bhubaneswar at Niti Ayog in New Delhi on Thursday.

Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited will attract investment for the Integrated Multi-Utilities Project for development and maintenance-24X7 water supply, recycled water supply, stormwater drainage, solid waste management, 24X7 energy supply, underground cabling of the power supply, smart energy metre, road and pavement works, tree plantation, street furnishing and smart street lighting.

The event will be a joint exercise of Niti Ayog, Odisha Government and BSCL. Originally there in the Smart City proposal, the 3I Project (Integrated, Infrastructure, Improvement) would cost around Rs 370 crore in BTCD.

It is learnt that already for projects like underground cabling of power supply line, stormwater drain, 24X7 power supply and water supply detailed project reports and feasibility studies report have been prepared and Niti Ayog and Odisha Government have taken a decision to implement the 3I Project on public-private partnership (PPP) mode. While during implementation stage there would be grants for the selected bidder, during the execution of the project the bidder would get annual annuity as revenue.

These infrastructure-based public services will be handed over to a single utility operator. The selected operator shall undertake one time Capex (capital expenditure) to redevelop infrastructure, operate and maintain these services and recover the operations and maintenance payments from the government.

For example, while the Public Health Engineering Organisation (PHEO) is currently supplying water per capita 248 litres in a day for about 3 hours, the 24X7 system under the Smart City Proposal (SCP) is 160 litres per capita in a day for 24 hours. Similarly, in case of households through “Let’s Recycle’’ centres for better waste collection, segregation and reuse would ensure better garbage collection, treatment, recycling and management.

It can be mentioned here that Bhubaneswar’s SCP is centred around 7 Smart City Pillars to align citizen’s aspirations and needs with the city systems. They are Governance, City planning and design, Urban mobility, Urban utility, Shelter, Economic Development and Social Development.

BTCD, the ‘pilot smart district’ is the region in which the area based development is going to happen as per the SCP by retrofitting and redeveloping 985 acres of land around the main railway station in the heart of the city into a 24X7 vibrant destination that applies the features of Smart Cities in a prescribed area.

While BTCD holds 3% of BMC area, the existing population is around 50,000 with 11,167 households and a net population density of 335 persons per hectare.