Doon Smart City plan: ‘We will pluck low-hanging fruits first in 2018’
As the first step towards the project’s implementation, a request for proposal was floated for the selection of project management consultant, which will design, develop and manage the Smart City project in Dehradun. The pre-bid meeting for the same is scheduled to take place on January 16, after which the consultant is likely to be finalised by February 1.
DEHRADUN: Expectations ride high on the ambitious Smart City project this year for which officials will follow a step-by-step approach for accomplishing goals in a systematic manner.
“We will be targeting the low-hanging fruits first, which means that we will work in a way that things relatively easier and quickly achievable are undertaken first. For that, we will chalk out short and long term goals separately,” Dehradun Smart City Limited (DSCL), additional chief executive officer Ashish Kumar Srivastava told Hindustan Times.
The Uttarakhand government formed DSCL, a special purpose vehicle, to look after the project’s implementation aimed at offering sustainable technology-based solutions.
A flagship programme of the Centre, the Smart City Mission aims at developing 100 self-sustained townships with well-networked infrastructure and information technology. Dehradun’s proposal was selected in June last year, but it was only in December that the state government earmarked an initial budget of Rs 70 crore for the project.
As the first step towards the project’s implementation, a request for proposal was floated for the selection of project management consultant, which will design, develop and manage the Smart City project in Dehradun. The pre-bid meeting for the same is scheduled to take place on January 16, after which the consultant is likely to be finalised by February 1.
“Once the project management consultant is finalised, work on formulating the detailed project report will begin. We should be able to roll out the actual implementation in the next financial year (2018-19),” Srivastava said, adding that the project’s duration was of three years.
The Smart City’s total project cost is pegged at over Rs 1,400 crore, of which a sum of Rs 500 crore each has to be provided by the Centre and the state, and the rest will be managed through convergence of other schemes and public private partnership mode. Notably, only 10 of the state capital’s 60 municipal wards have been incorporated in the Smart City plan, covering an area of around 354 hectare.
Residents hoped that the project picks up pace in 2018 after it remained almost ‘dormant’ in the last year. “There are high expectations from the project, but nothing has been translated from paper (to ground) so far. We hope the project gains the required momentum this year,” Doon Residents’ Welfare Front president Mahesh Bhandari said.