Bhubaneswar, the capital city of the Indian state Odisha, has become the first Indian city to win the elusive Pierre L'enfant International Planning excellence award 2017. The award is given out by the American Planning Association (APA) for good and advanced town planning and engaging its residents in the planning process.

The APA Awards recipients will be honoured at the Awards Luncheon at APA's National Planning Conference in New York on May 8, 2017.

Interesting facts on the city of Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneshwar is popularly known as the Temple City of India

The city has a history of over 3,000 years, emerging with the Mahamegha-bahana Chedi dynasty around the 2nd century BCE

Bhubaneswar's Foundation Day is celebrated on April 13, the day the capital was shifted from Cuttack in the year 1948

Bhubaneswar Airport turned international on July 10, 2015

German town-planning engineer Otto Kolenigs Berger prepared the master plan of the city

World Bank Doing Business 2009 report ranked Bhubaneswar at number 3 in terms of ease of doing business

What is the Pierre L'enfant Awards?

Pierre L'enfant was a French-born American architect and civil engineer

He is credited for designing the layout of the streets of Washington DC in the United States

The American Planning Association (APA) has named an award in his honour to recognise excellence in international planning

More about APA

APA was created in 1978

It is an independent, not for profit educational organisation representing the field of urban planning in the United States

It serves as a forum for the exchange of ideas related to urban planning

The APA through awards, honours outstanding community plans, planning programs and initiatives, public education efforts, and individuals for their leadership on planning issues

APA boasts of 35,000 members from over 100 countries.

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