Bhubaneswar: Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL) has won the Best Digital Payment Innovator Award, conceptualised by Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA).
This was part of the initiative taken up by MoUHA during August last year under Smart Cities Digital Payment Awards (SCDPA) 2018.
There were three categories under SCDPA-2018-Best digital payments adopter, Best digital payments innovator and Fastest growing Smart City focusing on digital payments.
Bhubaneswar received the award under Best digital payments innovator as it exhibits the most innovative implementation of the digital payments options for its citizens.
As a part of its Smart City Proposal, BSCL has started implementing Common Payment Card System (CPCS) under Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode through ICICI Bank.
The proposed system focuses on facilitating payment transactions for citizen services across the city through Odyssey Card.
These services primarily include payments pertaining to buses and other transit modes, parking, municipal services (property taxes, trade license fee and other charges), utilities (electricity, water, etc.) and also includes recreational and retail payments.
The project envisages operationalisation of digital payment eco-system in the city for accepting different payments being accepted by the Government.
Under this project, 325 Point of Sale (POS) machines will be installed across the city to facilitate payment services for citizens at primate distance.
Service delivery points, named as My Odyssey Centre with POS devices shall be available to citizens at approximately 250-300 mts of walkable distance to avail all kinds of services including payment of municipal services, utility bills etc.
As part of the Phase-I of the project, total of 2,000 cards have been issued to citizens so far.
The Stage II evaluation under the chairmanship of Secretary, MoHUA, shortlisted three top cities in each category for presentations to understand the depth of digital payment initiatives in their cities concerned.
Bhubaneswar Smart City was shortlisted for presentation under two categories i.e. “Best Digital Payment Innovator” and “Fastest growing Smart City Focusing on Digital Payments”. However, based on the presentations evaluated by the Evaluation Committee, Bhubaneswar Smart City bagged the winning award under the category of “Best Digital Payment Innovator”.
This achievement would help Bhubaneswar to further enhance and bring the digital payment systems in all areas of the services across Bhubaneswar.