Bhubaneswar Smart City fails to achieve benchmark: new plan coming soon

Bhubaneswar Smart City

The Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) has decided to come up with a new Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP) owing to the lack of fulfillment of the benchmark.

According to BDA Vice-Chairman Prem Chandra Chaudhary, they have already received the approval of the Housing and Urban Development (H&UD) department in this regard and the new CDP will focus on city’s future progress in infrastructure and other facilities through public participation and feedback.

H&UD Secretary and BDA Chairman G Mathivathanan said to a national daily that the achievements under the existing CDP have not been much compared to what had been decided 10 years back. He added that this time, the goals of CDP will be more reasonable and will be doable in five years.

According to Mathivathanan, the existing housing regulations are not realistic and force people to deviate and violate the regulations and hence need a proper amendment. He also added that the government is planning to liberalise these regulations.

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The new regulations are expected to spur growth in vertical constructions in which the Floor Area Ratio limit will be increased. It is expected to encourage the public to follow norms and bring down the land costs which have become unnaturally high.

Mathivathanan also said the government is planning new housing projects which will be undertaken to provide modest accommodation to citizens belonging to lower-income group.