B-Active project of Bhubaneswar under CITIIS gets approval of APEX Committee

Bhubaneswar, July 8: The Fourth Special Apex Committee led by Kunal Kumar, Joint Secretary and Mission Director (Smart City Mission), for validation of Maturation Phase, has approved the Bhubaneswar Active (B-Active) project of the city under the City Investments to Innovate Integrate and Sustain (CITIIS). After the approval, the B-Active Project of Bhubaneswar will move forward to the implementation phase. The Special APEX Committee comprised representatives from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), the French Development Agency (AFD), the European Union (EU) and the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA). It was held virtually under the chairmanship of Kunal Kumar, Joint Secretary and Mission Director (Smart City Mission) MoHUA on July 1. Presentation for Bhubaneswar’s B-Active Project was made under the guidance of Chief Executive Officer Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL) Sanjay Kumar Singh. Country Director AFD Mr Bruno Bosle congratulated Team Bhubaneswar on the successful preparation of all deliverables of the Maturation Phase and the approach of the various components of the project. The Joint Secretary and Mission Director (SCM) MoHUA also congratulated CEO BSCL and wished the best to the team for the successful implementation of the project. Bhubaneswar’s B-Active (Bhubaneswar-Active) proposal was submitted by BSCL under the theme of Public Open Spaces. It was selected as one of the 12 city proposals under CITIIS Challenge Programme in February 2019 at the Second Apex Smart City CEO’s conference held in Delhi. Subsequently, a tripartite agreement was signed on March 5, 2019 for the CITIIS Programme between MoHUA, the Government of Odisha and BSCL. The city will get Rs 79.30 crore in grant in phases. CEO BSCL Sanjay Kumar Singh said ``with this approval now BSCL will try to implement all the components of the project with a more structured way in order to achieve the objectives of the B-Active Project.’’ Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs Government of India, the French Development Agency (AFD), European Union (EU), National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) and Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL) are jointly implementing the CITIIS Programme in the Temple City, Bhubaneswar. CITIIS Programme is supported by the national PMU at NIUA. The intention behind B-Active project is to resolve the issues associated with service delivery to improve the quality of public open spaces across 2,470 acres, encompassing parts of the planned area and the Old Town area of Bhubaneswar City. While addressing the issue of declining levels of physical activity, a Smart Active Living Strategy is proposed to maximize the use of the open spaces for different assets (components) in the city, including Streets, Water, Parks & Open Spaces, Sports & Playgrounds, and Heritage.