Odisha receives ‘World Habitat Award’

BHUBANESWAR: For the works of Odisha Government in granting urban poor families land right certificates, the World Habitat, a UK-Based organisation in partnership with UN Habitat has given the state ‘World Habitat Award’.

The award was presented in recognition of the state government ambitious project Jagan Mission where 52,682 urban poor families have been given land rights. The project which is acclaimed as the World’s Largest Slum land is executed in collaboration with Tata Trusts and Norman Foster Foundation.

The project was first rolled out on May 7, 2018 making it country’s first project to take up such initiative, with promisies to provide “self-respect and freedom from the perpetual fear of eviction”.  

Till now, 1725 slums in the state have been surveyed using drone surveillance and GIS technology. Besides which transportation of 255 slums into liveable habitat is also under implementation.

Naveen Patnaik, Chief Minister of Odisha had handed over land titles to 2,000 slum dwellers from nine urban local bodies at Chhatrapur in Ganjam district in the presence of Ratan Tata, Chairman, Tata Trusts and Norman Foster, British architect.

Recently, the project was also awarded the ‘India Geospatial Excellence Award’ for technological innovation in transforming lives of urban poor.