Bhubaneswar will receive the international excellence award from the American Planning Association (APA) in New York next month. The award is called PierreL’Enfant International Planning Excellence Award 2017.
“The Bhubaneswar Smart City Plan redefines the concept of “smart cities” and outlines a citizen-driven vision for the future by using technology to help residents gain better access to city services, and improve the overall quality of life. The goal was to engage residents in discussions to identify which groups had access to technology and city services and which groups did not, and how to close that gap,” the American Planning Association mentioned in the citation.
“It is indeed gratifying to see out capital city making the world sit up and notice of its citizen centric vision that aims to achieve sustainable economic growth and improve quaity of life for all sections,” said Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in conversation with The Teleanalysis.com.
“This is for the first time in the history of APA Awards that an Indian city has been recognized for its planning efforts,” he added.
Interesting facts on the city of Bhubaneswar
- Bhubaneshwar is popularly known as the Temple City of India
- The city has a history of over 3,000 years, emerging with the Mahamegha-bahana Chedi dynasty around the 2nd century BCE
- Bhubaneswar’s Foundation Day is celebrated on April 13, the day the capital was shifted from Cuttack in the year 1948
- Bhubaneswar Airport turned international on July 10, 2015
- German town-planning engineer Otto Kolenigs Berger prepared the master plan of the city
- World Bank Doing Business 2009 report ranked Bhubaneswar at number 3 in terms of ease of doing business
What is the Pierre L’enfant Awards?
- Pierre L’enfant was a French-born American architect and civil engineer
- He is credited for designing the layout of the streets of Washington DC in the United States
- The American Planning Association (APA) has named an award in his honour to recognise excellence in international planning
