To tackle public transportation issues in the city and help find solutions, the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) is proposing to collaborate with the World Resources Institute.
The BDA and WRI India will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in presence of Housing and Urban Development Minister Pushpendra Singh Deo on Tuesday.
The purpose of the MoU would be to establish the basis and structure of collaboration between the BDA and the WRI. The agency will provide the BDA with its technical assistance in Smart City proposal and engage in capacity building programmes to catalyse specific sustainable solutions for urban development and mobility.
Transportation sector is also a focus area for the State capital as it received large numbers of votes under the Smart City challenge and was part of the city’s proposal that earned it the first position.
The WRI will support Bhubaneswar in its effort to develop transport and urban planning projects under the Government of India’s Smart City mission. In order to achieve this, the WRI will provide technical expertise in the areas of project development, policy and capacity building. To begin with, the WRI has already conducted a national level three-day workshop on “Indian Vision Zero’’ during September last. By mutual agreement between the parties, additional sustainable transport-related initiatives may be developed under the auspices of the MoU.
The WRI’s work under this collaboration will be funded by donor organisations that have committed to support WRI in its endeavour to promote road safety and the development of sustainable cities in India.
The city is organising a weekly Patha Utsav on every Sunday along the Janpath in order to create awareness on non-motorised transport, people’s ownership over the street as walkers and also promoting activities like cycling, skating and playing.
While the baseline concept of the event was to make the city more liveable and citizens more healthy and smart, the road safety elements were there just like the beginners’ alphabets. Sticking to the lanes of the road is a basic concept for the road users, so Patha Utsav is the perfect event to teach the people of the Temple City how to use this knowledge in the practices of day-to-day life.
Just two weeks old, the heritage walk in the Old Town area in the city is to promote our old history, archaeology and tourism. However, practically it is also helpful in providing a better platform to popularise walking. In the future days Ekamra Walks would also include cycle tour to provide the visitors a new experience during their visit to Bhubanewar.
Under the Smart City initiative, the Complete Street Programme will include all elements of road safety for kids and there will be dedicated cycle track and pedestrian ways so that the city would become beautiful, liveable and green with the pollution burden almost nearing zero. There is also an ambitious plan to introduce Public Bicycle Sharing (PBS) Programme so that one may use bicycle by registering and would go with the bike to tour around the city with a nominal cost.