Bhubaneswar, March 23 The Odisha government signed a tripartite agreement on Monday to set up a visa application center at the Babasaheb Bhim Rao Ambedkar Bus Terminal here.
The agreement was signed between the Home Department, the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA), and VFS Global Group.
Officials said that the state government has allocated approximately 3,000 square feet of space at the bus terminal to house the center.
Currently, residents of Odisha have to travel to cities like Kolkata, Delhi, or Hyderabad for visa-related services, and the new facility is expected to make the process more accessible locally.
In December last, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi approved the proposal for establishing a visa application center in the state.
In a separate development, BDA also signed an agreement with the Odisha Computer Application Centre (OCAC) to lease vacant space at the terminal.
Under the arrangement, BDA will lease approximately 77,000 square feet across two floors to OCAC, which will further allocate the space to IT companies.
The move aims to integrate transport, services, and technology within a single hub.
BDA Vice-Chairman Chanchal Rana said that the terminal is poised to evolve into a combined transport and business hub, housing IT and ITeS companies alongside the visa application center.
Spanning 11 acres, BSABT is the largest bus terminal in Odisha, managing over 1,500 buses and nearly 20,000 passengers daily across inter-state and intra-state routes, making it a key transit hub in the state.