Singapore firm to design town centre for Bhubaneswar's smart city project

Project to cost firm Rs 8 cr; East Coast Railways, Bhubaneswar Smart City will be important stakeholders

Singapore-based Surbana Jurong has won the bid to design the Bhubaneswar Town Centre (BTC) project. This is going to be the first such transit-oriented development (TOD) project in the country.
 

The innovative design for the BTC project will cost over Rs 8 crore. The project is being developed by the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) on around 12 acres of land. As the project site shares its location with the city’s main railway station within the Bhubaneswar Town Centre Smart District, both East Coast Railways and Bhubaneswar Smart City Ltd would be important stakeholders in the project and will be consulted throughout the course of its implementation.

Competing with two other short-listed major design firms of the world, the Singapore-based company won the bid with its unique blend of contemporary designs and traditional temple building architecture.

Jurong’s revenue collection stands at $1.3billion and the firm has its presence in over 40 countries across the globe. It has 110 site offices internationally and is one of the leading powerhouses for urban infrastructure design and consultancy in the world. The company has drawn up master plans for 30 nations, 50 industrial parks worldwide. Some of its major projects were HDB Hub, Singapore, Clementi Mixed Development Singapore, Fusionopolis Singapore, MKH World Malayasia, Datum Jelatek Kuala Lumpur and Kigali CBD (Central Business District) and Nyarugenge District Masterplan Rwanda. 

The BTC project is envisioned as the city’s first planned TOD initiative and the first smart building project in Bhubaneswar. As part of the Bhubaneswar Smart City proposal, the city’s area-based development vision is centred around the BTC project. This 12- acre site, located on the west side of the railway tracks, is accessible directly from the city’s main thoroughfare.

The BTC project would primarily have elements like theatre plaza, retail and malls, nature plaza, landscape, town plaza, art plaza, experience plaza and children’s plaza. 

"This will also have food courts, service apartments and pedestrian streets with dedicated pedestrian and cycling paths. The entire project would have an interactive as well as innovative environment,’’ said additional commissioner-cum-member (enforcement), BDA, Bhabani Shankar Chayani.

The multi-modal transit hub would include railway station, bus terminal, multi-level car parking, pedestrian plaza, convention centre, performance plaza, kids play area, art gallery, bicycle and pedestrian bridge, office building and last, but not the least, dedicated pickup and drop off lanes for taxi aggregators and auto-rickshaws. 

In December 2016, the Odisha government had advised BDA to create a special purpose vehicle (SPV) for the implementation of the railway station multi-modal hub project in Bhubaneswar titled the 'Bhubaneswar Town Centre Project'. This SPV is a 100 per cent subsidiary of BDA and would serve as a dedicated agency to ensure successful implementation of the project in the next five years.