By Nageshwar Patnbaik in Bhubaneswar, August 2 2026: In a bid to ensure the planned development of large urban and industrial corridors across the state, the state Cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, has approved a proposal to amend the Odisha Development Authorities (ODA) Act, 1982, paving the way for the establishment of Economic Region Development Authorities (ERDAs).

The move promises to facilitate integrated planning across multiple urban local bodies and districts, enabling city agglomerations to function as unified economic regions rather than isolated municipal jurisdictions. The proposed Odisha Development Authorities (Amendment) Bill, 2026, moved by the Housing and Urban Development Department, is aimed at creating a comprehensive statutory framework for constituting, empowering and governing ERDAs.

Once the amendment is approved by the Odisha Legislative Assembly, BKPPER will become Odisha’s first formally constituted economic region development authority. The region combines the state capital, major urban centres, Paradeep port, industrial hubs, logistics infrastructure and important religious and cultural destinations into a single economic geography for accelerating investment, infrastructure creation and regional competitiveness.

The reform measure is part of the Viksit Odisha vision for Viksit Bharat @ 2047, which identifies urbanisation as a key driver of economic growth. The vision envisages the planned development of city clusters as integrated economic corridors with modern infrastructure, employment hubs, efficient transport systems and coordinated public services.

The state government has identified several potential economic regions, including the Bhubaneswar-Cuttack-Puri-Paradeep Economic Region (BKPPER), Baragada-Jharsuguda-Sambalpur, Brahmapur-Chhatrapur-Gopalpur and Jayapur-Koraput-Sunabeda agglomerations, while other economic regions will be notified by the government in a phased manner.

Region-specific economic plans and master plans have been proposed for these urban clusters to facilitate planning beyond municipal boundaries, leverage the complementary strengths of constituent cities, attract investments, generate employment, and improve housing, mobility, public services and overall quality of life.

Launched in February this year, BKPPER is a flagship economic and infrastructure plan backed by NITI Aayog. It targets scaling the regional economy from $22.4 billion to $500 billion by 2047 across an 11,892 sq km zone.

Over 80 designated projects spanning metals downstream, information technology (IT), biotechnology, textiles, chemicals, health tech and tourism have been planned in the region, backed by an initial ₹5,000 crore commitment from the central government under the new City Economic Regions (CER) framework and with the support of more than 30 policy interventions.

The Odisha government has also allocated ₹320 crore under the Samruddha Sahara scheme in the 2026-27 Budget for focused and comprehensive planning and new city development in BKPPER and other major regions such as Sambalpur and Brahmapur. The government had earlier allocated ₹1,342 crore for Bhubaneswar new city.

Anu Garg, chief secretary, said an economic plan had already been prepared for the BKPPER region in collaboration with NITI Aayog, making it the pilot project for the new institutional framework. In the Union Budget 2026-27, four city economic regions have been identified as engines of economic growth, with BKPPER being one of them alongside Varanasi, Surat and Visakhapatnam, she said.

“While multiple development authorities currently function within different urban areas, there is no overarching statutory institution to coordinate planning and implementation across an entire economic region. The proposed ERDAs will help bridge this gap by providing seamless coordination among various development authorities operating within a region,” Garg said.

The amendment proposes to add new definitions for “economic region” and “economic region development authority” to the ODA Act and insert an entirely new Chapter IIA. This new chapter will empower the state government to notify and constitute ERDAs for future economic regions without requiring a fresh legislative amendment each time.