Bhubaneswar and Rourkela may get ‘Smart City’ status in Odisha

Temple city Bhubaneswar and Steel city Rourkela of Odisha are likely to be accorded as the ‘smart city’ status, though the state government on Thursday has decided to recommend five cities of the State in this regard.

The five cities– Bhubaneswar, Rourkela, Cuttack, Berhampur and Sambalpur are decided in a high level steering committee meeting chaired by Chief Secretary GC Pati at the State Secretariat for recommending the Centre to accord ‘smart city’ status.

However, capital city Bhubaneswar and Rourkela with the score 70 points and 61.8 points respectively are well ahead in race as per the central guidelines. On the other hand, Cuttack, Berhampur and Sambalpur have scored 60 points each. The Odisha Government has decided to request the Centre to include all five cities of Odisha in the Smart City project by removing the riders.

The steering committee will submit its recommendation  for the Smart city project to the Centre by July 31. Narendra Modi government has earlier decided to select two cities from each State for providing financial and other necessary assistance to develop as smart cites. Rourkela MLA Dilip Ray has made a lot of efforts to get the nod for Rourkela as a Smart City.