The Hindu 24.03.2010
Merger of five villages with BMC on the anvil
Staff Reporter
| State government's approval awaited |
BHUBANESWAR: With the Capital City expanding from all corners, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to spread out its jurisdiction towards Khurda by inclusion of five more villages.
“The corporation has sent a proposal to include villages such as Patrapada, Bhagabanpur, Shankarpu, Subudhipur and Paikarapur in the BMC limit. Previously they were coming under panchayats,” said BMC Mayor Ananat Narayan Jena here on Tuesday.
Mr. Jena said that BMC was waiting approval of State government, which could issue gazette notification at any time from now. Upon completion, people residing inside these villages could certainly enjoy the basic amenities being provided to other residential areas under BMC, the Mayor said. He, however, made it clear that besides these five villages, the corporation had no plans to include more villages in the next fiscal. These villages are part of southern extension of Bhubaneswar Development Authority, which identified about 40 odd villages on both sides of National Highway –5 from Khandagiri Square. Inclusion of Patrapada became necessary following establishment of All India Institute of Medical Sciences and Biju Patnaik Police Training College. Moreover, the bus terminal is likely to be shifted to Patrapada in near future.
Similarly, State Housing Board plans to come up with housing projects at Paikarapur. Long before BMC mulled over expanding jurisdiction towards Khurda, a number of residential zones have already come up on land in periphery of villages.
Key projects
A real estate developer said the BMC was bound to move towards south as a number of important projects such as second IT park, proposed satellite township and food park would be coming up in that direction.
A year ago, the BDA had laid foundation for city extension by infusing planning into 40 villages from Khandagiri Square by declaring it as South City.
