The Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) on Tuesday entered into a
pact with the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) to implement the
State’s first Town Planning (TP) scheme on the outskirts of the Capital
city.

For the scheme, which will be undertaken on a pilot basis, more than 1,200 acres of land have been identified in Madanpur mouza.

Under
this project, three villages – Madanpur, Jagasara and Durgapur – have
been included. Out of total land, four acres are Government land, 100
acres forest land and the rest private land. Since BDA failed to execute
a similar project in the past due to land acquisition problem, this
time no acquisition will take place.

Since it will be carried out
with people’s participation, locals will hand over their land on which
the development authority will implement the scheme and give the
developed property to the owner in exchange.

A master plan will be
drawn for the identified land and planned growth will be executed.
Principal Secretary to Housing and Urban Development (H&UD)
Department Injeti Srinivas said the TP scheme is expected to be
implemented in three years. According to BDA Vice Chairman Vishal Dev,
the major task will be to convince the public about the benefits of the
scheme.

Under the scheme, 30 to 40 per cent of the land will be
kept aside for roads and other infrastructure while the rest land will
remain with the owners.About 300 acres of land will be taken up for
development in the first phase. Municipal Commissioner of Ahmedabad
Guruprasad Mahapatra, who was also present during signing of the MoU,
said AMC will provide the technical expertise to BDA to implement the
scheme.