BHUBANESWAR: In order to raise finances for construction of roads and drains in the twin cities and their maintenance, the State Government has strongly recommended monetisation of land. As part of the plan, Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has been asked to identify 100 acres of encroached land while Cuttack will seek to find 50 acres. Under the urban reforms pursued by the Centre, monetisation of land has been recommended as the most viable source of raising finances. Basing on that, the two Corporations have been asked to find out how much land they could free from encroachments. Since Bhubaneswar would require funds between ` 1,000 crore and ` 1,200 crore for the roads and drains, about 100-acre encroached land, if freed, could fetch something about ` 1,000 crore through open auction. The two corporations have been asked to carry out the exercise of identifying the land within a month in consultation with the development authorities. Besides, at a meeting chaired by Chief Secretary BK Patnaik, it was decided that there would be a regular head for land acquisition in the Budget estimates of the Housing and Urban Development Department to provide for cost of land and drainage systems of BMC as well as other ULBs. Since construction as well as maintenance of the roads and drains are the biggest financial challenge for the ULBs, the Housing and Urban Development Department has proposed that new drain construction work will henceforth be entrusted to the agencies which build the roads. Besides the 10 drains, work for which is underway, construction of new drains will be the responsibility of the agencies such as Public Works Department and National Highways Authority of India since these two have a major share of road network in the Capital. “With so many agencies in the picture, the domains have to be clearly outlined. New drains will be the responsibility of the agencies which construct roads in the City,” Municipal Commissioner Vishal Dev said. In fact, the 10 major drains which are being constructed will remain under maintenance of the Water Resources Department till these are handed over to BMC. Once it is handed over, the ULB will have the mandate of operation and maintenance of these drains. The WR Department will prepare a proposal for removal of the encroachment s which will be presented to the BMC.
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