Digital and socio-economic convergence of smart parking gains praise from MoHUA Secretary

Bhubaneswar, Nov 26: Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) Secretary Durga Shanker Mishra, who is on a two-day Odisha tour, today visited various projects of the Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL) and expressed his happiness over the implementation of the technology-driven Smart Parking System on Smart Janpath. He also interacted with the members of the transgender community, who are managing the Smart Parking on Janpath. During a drive through the State Secretariat and Smart Janpath, he also saw the multi-level car parking near Rajmahal Square. Taking a keen interest at the functioning of the Smart Parking System, the MoHUA Secretary asked several questions to the transgender community members, who explained how they are operating and how all of it is integrated with the Bhubaneswar Operations Centre, the temporary Intelligent City Operations and Management Centre (ICOMC), at the Smart City Office. Later, talking to media persons, he said ``the work being done on ground is very good, but needs to be scaled up and perfected to greater lengths. The Smart Janpath Project is a great intervention with transgender community managing the parking lots. Citizens can now know the parking slot availability through their smart phones and pay for it online.’’ He, however, stressed that outreach programmes are the need of the hour for better citizens’ involvement. Smart City Mission is focused on Ease of Doing Business and improving livability. He asserted that BSCL is working on multiple projects and it is an experimental ground for learning. The positive learning shall be replicated and that we are all currently in the learning process of building a sustainable future.’’ During the Smart Janpath visit of the MoHUA Secretary, Principal Secretary Housing and Urban Development Department, G Mathivathanan, MD and CEO Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited Sanjay Kumar Singh, Deputy Commissioner BMC Srimant Mishra and General Manager Smart City Kamaljit Das were present, among other officials of Smart City and Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation.