Roads, streetlights and hockey world cup on BMC priority list

Bhubaneswar: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) will soon coordinate with all the city-based agencies for better roads and civic amenities before and after the Puja as the annual festive season is about to knock the door.

During the monthly meeting at the BMC Conference Hall here on Friday, while the majority of corporators spoke about the overall road conditions before the Puja, the authorities promised ward-wise redevelopment work, for which tender is almost at the final stage.

Culture and Tourism Minister Ashok Chandra Panda presided over the meeting in which Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena, Deputy Mayor K Shanti, Municipal Commissioner Dr Krishan Kumar and Additional Commissioner Subham Saxena were present.

The major 40-km road which is damaged due to the underground cabling of electric wire and cabling for the Wi-Fi network is likely to get its final touch by the Puja time. The civic authorities would not allow any agency to dig up any road after October 15.

The street lights along the priority road network of 40 km would also be on top priority during the Puja. Cutting of trees near streetlight poles where the branches are obstructing the lights and where better lux (unit of illumination) is needed for more illumination would also be taken up.

The city is also going to have its city-wide network project unveiled by October much before the World Cup Hockey.

Also, the new buses under the Capital Region Urban Transport (CRUT) will start arriving around October second week and the state-of-the-art stainless steel bus queue shelters would be taking shapes around that time. The 200-250 buses would be started plying across the city before the hockey tourney would start.

For the coming hockey world cup, six major parks across the city would be cleaned jointly by BMC and Bhubaneswar Development Authority. The selected parks like IG Park and Biju Patnaik Park would don a beautiful look to attract public during the festival of hockey, which would unite visitors from 16 nations from all the corners of the world.