Bhubaneswar: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has announced plans to construct a stadium at Daruthenga village on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar, despite the area not falling under the civic body’s administrative jurisdiction.
Daruthenga, once used by the BMC as a municipal solid waste dumping ground for over a decade, is now set to witness major infrastructure development as part of the civic body’s peripheral development commitment to local residents.
According to BMC Additional Commissioner Kailash Chandra Dash, the proposed stadium will be built at an estimated cost of more than Rs 6 crore to promote sporting activities and strengthen sports infrastructure in the village.
“We will construct a stadium spending more than Rs 6 crore in the village to instill sporting spirit and enhance sports infrastructure. We have already built roads and drains. The stadium was a demand of the villagers as part of peripheral development,” Dash said.
The civic body had been dumping municipal waste at Daruthenga from 2008 until the end of 2022. Following directions from the National Green Tribunal to stop open dumping and scientifically process legacy waste, the BMC began bio-mining operations at the site in 2023.
Officials said the corporation had assured villagers that the old waste would be cleared after fresh dumping stopped and promised long-term development initiatives for the area.
“For the stadium, we have floated the tender and once the work is awarded to a contractor, construction will begin. We will set an example that we didn’t leave the village in a neglected state,” Dash added.
The BMC has now initiated the second phase of bio-mining involving nearly 9 lakh metric tonnes of legacy waste at the site. Over the past three years, around 12 lakh metric tonnes of old waste have already been processed, taking the total quantity of legacy waste targeted through bio-mining at Daruthenga to nearly 21 lakh metric tonnes.
The project is expected to transform the former dumping zone into a community-oriented infrastructure hub while addressing long-standing environmental concerns in the area.
-OdishaAge
