The State Government has signed a note of technical cooperation with Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH India for availing technical assistance under Integrated Sustainable Urban Transport Systems for Smart Cities in India (SMART-SI IT) project in Bhubaneswar.
This is one of the supports for development of Smart Cities for which the GIZ would provide four million euro technical assistance to three Smart Cities in India-Bhubaneswar, Coimbatore and Kochi and their respective State Governments.
The note of cooperation was signed by Housing and Urban Development Special Secretary Prem Kumar Jha, BDA Vice Chairman Krishan Kumar and GIZ Smart-SUT Project Manager Sarah Habersack in the presence of Housing and Urban Development Minister Niranjan Pujari, Germany Deputy Consul General Jiirgen Thomas Schrod and Sustainable Urban and Industrial Development GIZ India Cluster Coordinator Tanja Feldmann.
The main objective of the project is to improve planning and implementation of sustainable and integrated urban transport systems and solutions. Through this partnership, the GIZ would support the city in developing an integrated urban transport system providing sustainable mobility solutions for all people living in the city. The first activity under this collaboration would be preparing a low carbon mobility plan (lCMP), as a key strategy document for Bhubaneswar. The Minister said inter-city mobility is an important agenda in the Bhubaneswar Smart City programme. Pujari said 200 AC and non-AC buses are being procured to augment the fleet system in the capital region.
These buses will be operated under Gross Cost Contract (GCC) and the City Bus Service operator would develop two new depot-cum-terminals, he said. Pujari said the Government is considering to place a sustainable public transport system in the capital city before Odisha Hockey Men’s World Cup in November 2018.