October deadline for 15 city plans

Times of India, June 17, 2014
Ashok Pradhan,TNN | Jun 17, 2014, 05.26 PM IST
BHUBANESWAR: The state government has decided to prepare city development plans (CDPs) for 15 urban areas in the state by October this year. Real estate developers hope the planning would bring about systematic growth of the housing sector giving a boost to the real estate market. 

Sanjib Mishra, director, municipal administration, said the urban local bodies concerned had been asked to complete agreements with the private partners engaged in making the plans at the earliest and submit an inception report to the government. "The idea is to put in place the CDPs in advance so that it will be easier to put forth cases of the individual cities for any urban project of the central government," Mishra told TOI on Monday. 

The October deadline was fixed during a review meeting of preparing CDPs for these 15 towns — Bargarh, Baripada, Balangir, Balasore, Bhadrak, Brajarajnagar, Bhawanipatna, Dhenkanal, Koraput, Jeypore, Jharsuguda, Keonjhar, Paradeep, Rayagada and Rourkela on June 10. The government has already prepared CDPs for Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Berhampur, Sambalpur and Puri. 

The government has selected three consultants — Ramky Enviro Engineers, NK Buildcon and SREI Infrastructure — to prepare plans for the 15 cities. They have been given time till Monday (June 16) to sign the contract. The government will start releasing funds for preparing the plans after signing of such contracts. The urban local bodies have been asked to draw up the city-level CDP committees. 

Government sources said the state government wanted to complete the CDPs at the earliest, keeping in mind the Union government's proposal of a new scheme for the urban areas under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission and the announcement of 100 new cities across the country to ease burden on metros. 

Developers feel that the planning, if implemented properly, will result in systematic growth across several locations in the state. "Such a step will help the real estate market because planned growth would attract investors to new locations. The government should sincerely complete the planning at the earliest and start implementing them seriously," said Pradipta Biswasroy, president, Real Estate Developers' Association of Odisha.