Odisha: CS Directs Departments to Improve Infra in Peri-urban Areas

Bhubaneswar: Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mahapatra directed concerned departments to improve the road communication and basic service infrastructure in peri-urban areas surrounding all major ULBs. He gave this direction while presiding over a high level meeting held in Lokseba Bhawan conference hall wherein Principal Secretary Housing and Urban Development outlined the issues for discussion.

Highlighting the need for seamless communication between fast moving urban centers with peri-urban areas, Mahapatra said, “Rapidly growing urban centers provide employment and livelihood opportunities to the people from cross sections of society. People from the surrounding areas mostly commute to the urban centers on daily basis for attaining offices, availing different services like education, clinical care, land registration, court works etc. Besides, many people also commute for vending, trade and commerce. He added that development of good road communication in the peri-urban areas would facilitate the traffic flow into and out of the towns. Provisions of quality water supply, power supply, market places, and basic services in these areas while decreasing the burden of housing in the ULBs would add to ease of living and enhance satisfaction level of the people.

Mahapatra directed the departments of Works, Rural Development, Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water, Water Resources, and Housing and Urban Development to prepare a comprehensive 5-year perspective plan for development of basis infrastructure. The departments were asked to make a detail survey of the roads connecting the major ULBs and Growth Centers and prioritize those on the basis of traffic load. He also directed to identify the missing intra-connecting links for creating a road net-work in these areas. The departments were asked to work out the plan in about a month.

The issues relating to road cutting for laying and water pipes, swear lines, underground cablings in important urban centers; and, timely shifting of utilities from the roads taken up for widening were also discussed and resoled in the meeting. More specifically, the issues relating to shifting of electric poles and substations for development of major junctions namely Rasulgarh square, Kalpana square, Ravi talkies square, Beherasahi chhak etc in Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation area were discussed in detail and resolved in the meeting.

Development Commissioner Pradeep Kumar Jena directed that road cutting for lying of cables and pipes would be given by the concerned road owing authorities. The agency or department executing the work should restore the road to its original shape immediately after the work in one portion of the road is over.

Principal Secretary Housing and Urban Development G. Mathivathnan, Principal Secretary Works Vir Vikram Yadav along with Chief Engineers of the concerned departments participated in the deliberations.