Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Tuesday, 13 October 2026, inaugurated 1,608 affordable housing units and dedicated 12 modern playgrounds across Bhubaneswar and its adjoining areas, reaffirming the state government's commitment to building an inclusive capital city where the underprivileged can live with dignity.

What Was Inaugurated

The housing units handed over on Tuesday are part of a larger drive to ensure dignified shelter for poor families in the state capital. Alongside the residential units, 12 state-of-the-art playgrounds developed by the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) were also dedicated to the public, with the stated aim of nurturing children's sporting talent and supporting the well-being of senior citizens.

Chief Minister Majhi also laid the foundation stone for an affordable rental housing project at Gadakana, designed to provide low-cost accommodation to migrant workers and low-income families close to their workplaces.

What the Chief Minister Said

'We want to build a Bhubaneswar where poor families can live with dignity, workers can access affordable housing, young people can develop their talents, and every citizen can lead a healthy and better life,' Majhi said at the inauguration event.

He further noted that shelter ranks just below food as a basic human necessity, and invoked Prime Minister Narendra Modi's broader welfare agenda — which, he said, aims to provide poor families not only with houses but also with toilets, piped drinking water, electricity, and cooking gas.

Scale of the Housing Push

Majhi disclosed that more than two lakh houses have been sanctioned for Odisha under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban). In addition, the state government intends to deliver approximately five lakh houses through its own Antyodaya Gruha Yojana. Together, these two schemes represent one of the most ambitious urban housing drives the state has undertaken in recent years.

What the Housing Minister Said

Odisha Housing and Urban Development Minister Krushna Chandra Mahapatra, speaking at the same event, said the newly inaugurated units would give slum dwellers a fresh identity, improving their educational opportunities and social standing. His remarks underscored the government's framing of affordable housing as a social mobility tool, not merely a shelter provision.

Wider Context

This is the latest in a series of urban infrastructure moves by the Majhi government since taking office. Bhubaneswar, which holds the status of a Smart City, has seen sustained investment pressure to bridge its gap between aspirational urban planning and ground-level living conditions for its lowest-income residents. The addition of playgrounds alongside housing signals a deliberate attempt to extend the inclusivity agenda beyond bricks and mortar to community well-being. How quickly the rental housing project at Gadakana progresses will be a key indicator of the government's execution capacity on the worker-housing front.