To bring all round inclusive development of urban areas in the State, Odisha government has launched a new initiative, Unnati for its 107 urban local bodies by synergising resources from different schemes and providing critical gap funding to ensure basic and sustainable amenities.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik launched this programme of Housing and Urban Development Department.
During the launch, he also shared that the state government has decided to provide 100 per cent piped water supply in all wards and LED street lighting to all streets in all urban areas of the state.
The Housing and Urban Development department signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Energy Efficiency Service Limited (EESL) in the presence of the chief minister for implementation of Street Light National Programme in 107 ULBs of the state.
As per the MoU, 1.12 lakh conventional lights in all the 107 urban local bodies would be replaced by energy-efficient LED lights within a year. The combined impact of the government’s initiatives could help the state achieve energy saving to the tune of 35.97 million units annually and a total cost saving of about Rs 26.97 crore per annum.
The Housing and Urban Development department and EESL will invest nearly Rs 75 crore in the next one year for LED street lights in the state, according to the agreement. EESL will take care of maintenance and monitoring of the project for a period of seven years.
Chief Minister asked all the ULBs of the state to actively use social media tools Facebook and Twitter as an aspect of good governance and use it as ‘citizens connect’.
Chief Minister also congratulated Housing and Urban Development Department for 2nd rank in implementation of AMRUT reforms and asked urban local bodies to be sincere in implementation of pro-people programmes of the Government.
