Bhubaneswar: Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) Commissioner Krishan Kumar on Friday said the Centre has sent guidelines for the formation of special purpose vehicle (SPV), which is mandatory for implementation of projects under the Smart City Mission.
Kumar, who attended a discussion with Central government officials including the Union cabinet secretary via video conferencing here, said the State government will apprise the Centre and seek its opinion about the SPV after analysing the terms and guidelines.
“The Centre has sent a set of guidelines for implementation of development projects under the Smart City Mission. We will study its modalities such as technical competence, model concessional agreements etc. Besides, we need to seek suggestions regarding appointment of consultants for the projects. We will soon begin work on thi," Kumar said.
“They also spoke to us about the challenges we are going to face in the next 5-10 months during the implementation of projects,” he added.
Sources said the Central government has designed the SPV, an outside agency, which will be given powers to “execute” the proposed developments and projects. The implementation of the Mission at the city level will be done by the SPV. The SPV will plan, appraise, approve, release funds, implement, manage, operate, monitor and evaluate the Smart City development projects.
Each smart city will have a SPV, which will be headed by a full time CEO and have nominees of Central Government, State Government and ULB on its Board.
“The professionally managed SPV will be empowered to execute the smart city projects in a timely and cost-effective manner while ensuring that the quality of the outcomes is benchmarked against global standards,” an official said.
Yesterday Bhubaneswar was placed on top spot in the Smart City list of twenty cities prepared by the Centre.
The first 20 smart cities are: Bhubaneshwar, Pune, Jaipur, Surat, Kochi, NDMC (New Delhi), Ahmedabad, Jabalpur, Vizag, Solapur, Devangere, Indore, Coimbatore, Kakinada, Belgaum, Udaipur, Guwahati, Chennai, Ludhiana and Bhopal.