Odisha plans Rs 1,000 cr corpus fund for urban infrastructure

Odisha's Housing and Urban Development (HUD) department today proposed setting up of a Rs 1,000 crore corpus fund for the development of infrastructure facilities in and around the state capital of Bhubaneswar, official sources said.
The funds would be spent to implement provisions of the comprehensive development plan (CDP) around the capital city, HUD secretary Deoranjan Kumar Singh told reporters after meeting the chief secretary here.
The Corpus Fund will be raised under State Capital Region Development Fund that will supplement the normal expenditure of Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA), he said.
"The Fund will supplement the normal expenditure and also help the execution of infrastructure projects like facilities of storm water drainage, master plan roads, low-cost housing, slum development and beautification activities," Singh said.

Giving details of the plan, Singh said BDA will manage the Fund, while entities such as the Public Works department, Public Health Engineering organisation, and Central Electricity Supply Utility (CESU) will execute the projects.
"People will benefit immensely from the Fund as the execution of infrastructure projects will become easier and dependence on budgetary allocation will be minimal," said BDA vice-chairman Krishan Kumar.
Auction of government land in the city could be diverted to the Fund. About 75 per cent of the premium paid to the authority for developing Public-private-partnership projects will also come to the Fund. "There is also a proposal that the state government should specifically assign lands to the BDA for raising money for the Corpus Fund," an official said.