High-level French Delegation Visits Bhubaneswar Smart City

Bhubaneswar: A high-level French Delegation led by Didier Talpain, Consulate General of France in Kolkata, Embassy of France, senior officials from French Development Agency (AFD) and National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) today interacted with the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL) Sanjay Kumar Singh and discussed the progress of the City Investments to Innovate Integrate and Sustain (CITIIS) Programme in the city.

The delegation, which is on a two-day Odisha visit, also toured the various project sites of CITIIS in the Temple City and interacted with the CITIIS team yesterday.

While they visited the Quick Win Project site of Urban Agriculture inside BDA City Centre (NICCO Park) where the waterfront promenade project is also being planned for future, during the drive through they saw Sachivalaya Marg and Bidyut Marg where the NMT Priority Network is under implementation.

While the delegation visited Mumtaz Ali Park in Suryanagar for the proposed Smart Parks on Demand (PoD), the heritage area in the Old Town area also drew their attention. Under CITIIS, five heritage water ponds i.e. Devi Padahara, Ganga Jamuna, Kotitirtheswar, Godavari Kund and Godipokhari are included for rejuvenation. They also visited the 11th Century iconic monument – Lingaraj Temple.

The French delegation included Didier Talpain, Consulate General of French Embassy in Kolkata; Jacky Amprou, Regional Director (South Asia), AFD; Bruno Bosle, Country Director (AFD); Fanny Ragot Sector Portfolio Manager AFD; Anjita Roychaudhury Press and Diplomatic Liaison Officer, Embassy of France (Kolkata) and Naim Keruwala, Programme Director-CITIIS, NIUA, among others. General Manager BSCL Kamaljit Das coordinated the entire visit of the delegation.

It can be mentioned here that after going through a preparatory or maturation phase, the city has entered the implementation phase in Bhubaneswar and work is likely to commence very soon.

Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Government of India; AFD; European Union (EU); NIUA; Housing and Urban Development Department, Government of Odisha and BSCL are jointly implementing the CITIIS Programme in the Temple City, Bhubaneswar. CITIIS Programme is supported by the national PMU at NIUA.

While addressing the issue of declining levels of physical activity, a Smart Active Living Strategy is proposed to maximize the use of the open spaces for different assets (components) in the city, including Streets, Water, Parks & Open Spaces, Sports & Playgrounds, and Heritage under the CITIIS Programme.

The proposal for Bhubaneswar, aptly named as B-Active, aims to prepare the citizens for a participatory role to make the city a future sports capital and thus the activity-based citizen engagements would also result in discovering and nurturing new talents in sports and athletics.