R Balakrishnan appointed BSCL Chairman

Senior IAS officer and Additional Chief Secretary to Odisha government R Balakrishnan has been appointed as Chairman of Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL), the special purpose vehicle (SPV) set up to execute projects for making the state capital a smart city.
Bhubaneswar, which became the first city to have its SPV take off, had also topped the list of first batch of 20 smart cities selected by Urban Development Ministry in January this year.
"At the first Board meeting held on March 29, Development Commissioner and Additional Chief Secretary to Odisha government R Balakrishnan was appointed as Chairman of the SPV," an official release said.

Bhubaneswar Development Authority Vice-Chairman Krishan Kumar was appointed Managing Director and R Vineel Krishna, who was earlier Collector and District Magistrate of Orissa's Malkangiri district, was appointed the CEO of the SPV, it said.
A 16-member Board of Directors was set up with representatives of various departments and agencies of the Odisha government, one representative of central government and 5 independent directors of whom at least one will be a woman.
BSCL will have authorised a capital of Rs 500 crore, divided in to 5 crore shares of Rs 100 each.

Of this, Odisha government and Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation will have a share of Rs 112.50 crore each while Bhubaneswar Development Authority will contribute share capital of Rs 250 crore.

The Board, in its first meeting, also decided on delegation of financial powers.
Under Smart City Mission guidelines, SPVs for each smart city are to be set up to enable faster execution of projects by delegating to them powers of various concerned departments and agencies.