The State Government on Tuesday decided to exchange Government lands with private ones for development and beautification of the capital city, mainly for renovation of natural drains. The decision was taken here at a meeting chaired by Tourism and Culture Minister Ashok Panda wherein Chief Secretary GC Pati, the BMC Mayor, Commissioner, BDA and senior Government officials were present.
“Many development works in Bhubaneswar is halting due to land acquisition problems as most of the lands belong to private persons. It was decided that lands will be provided to individuals at other places in exchange of land to be acquired for execution of development works at the prevailing market benchmark value,” said BMC Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena. It was revealed that nearly 2,000 transit houses would be set up in the State capital for slum dwellers. This apart, the meeting discussed on 20 proposals related to development of the temple city.