With an expenditure of Rs 804 crore, 27 out of 28 projects in the Bhubaneswar smart city have so far been finished, but most of them are turning out to be “not so clever” decisions to fulfil residents’ aspirations.
There have been several instances where the bamboo fencing that the Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL) installed along the road medians has been removed or damaged.
The paver stones built on Janpath Road are also poorly managed. The sophisticated kiosks built for millions of rupees are useless.
At Bapuji Nagar and Saheed Nagar, two integrated public service centres that cost Rs 6 crore to build have not yet reached full operational capacity.
To address the issue of on-street parking, two multi-story automobile parking structures were built in Saheed Nagar and Unit II, but in vain.
In addition, after seven years, the projected world-class multimodal centre at Bhubaneswar Railway Station has failed with little initiative.
The cancellation of Satyanagar Institutional Hub, another massive project, was justified by its lack of viability.
Construction work has begun to build the drains, despite the fact that a tender has been floated for the Lake Neutral Project.
The BSCL reported that it has received 950 crores from the central government and the state of Odisha during the past five years, of which 804 crores had been used for various initiatives. The remaining funds will be used to purchase an intelligent traffic control system, and Rs 12 crore will go toward restoring the lake that runs through Nicco Park.
Prasanta Patnaik 
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