Steering Committee to oversee CDP implementation

The Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP) of Bhubaneswar prepared by IIT-Kharagpur, which spells out the detailed perspective plan for meeting the ever growing infrastructure needs of the city and its adjoining areas, is now a legally enforceable document.

“A high-level steering committee chaired by the state Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will be constituted within 15 days to formulate policy decisions and plan the necessary interventions for ensuring the smooth and effective implementation of CDP”, A K Panda, secretary, housing and urban development, Orissa government told reporters.

Besides, a task force will be constituted for implementation of the policies formulated by the steering committee. This task force to be chaired by the state Chief Secretary T K Mishra will have the secretaries of different departments as the members.

 

The state Chief Minister on Thursday reviewed the final CDP of the city in the presence of A K Panda, secretary, housing and urban development and D K Singh, vice chairman of Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA). The CDP was notified by the state government in April this year.

At the meeting, it was decided to finalize a Slum Development Plan for the economically weaker sections (EWS) of people living in and around the city. The Floor Area (FAR) of housing projects would be relaxed by 0.25 compared to other housing projects.

Apart from a Slum Development Policy, a land allotment policy would be put in place to make the optimum use of land as a resource for development of residential as well as commercial projects. The land development will be done on the public private partnership (PPP) mode.

A certain percentage of land for will also be earmarked for taking up housing projects for EWS and low income groups (LIG).

Admitting that meeting the housing needs of the people is a major challenge, Panda said, “Around 4.5 lakh new homes are needed in and around the city over the next 20 years to meet the housing needs of the people. We will devise a multi-pronged strategy for this purpose.”

The plan to develop satellite townships in and around the city also came up for discussion at the review meeting but the modalities are yet to be decided.

“The CDP is now a legally enforceable document. The implementation of CDP would need Rs 30,000 crore on various relevant sectors by 2030. There is also a proposal to create a Bhubaneswar Metropolitan Development Authority by the merger of BDA and the Cuttack Development Authority (CDA) to provide infrastructure facilities of metropolitan standards to the city's denizens”, said Singh.

As per the estimates of the CDP, the population of the Bhubaneswar Development Plan Area (BDPA) which comprises around 58 per cent of the BCUC region is set to reach 30 lakh by 2030. The density of population is set to rise to 29-30 persons per sq km by 20303 up from the existing 13-15 persons per sq km.

The east Kuakhai and Tarnando regions are estimated to have the highest growth rate of population at around 600 per cent followed by Gangapara and Aiginia regions at 273 per cent and 253 per cent respectively.