A good start: Nearly 10 projects, including pedestrian pathways such as the one along Dumas Street, have been taken up as part of the Puducherry Smart City Project. | Photo Credit: T_Singaravelou more-in Puducherry Smart City Development Ltd. (PSCDL) has selected Nippon Koei-PwC, a joint venture, as the project management consultant (PMC) for the execution and implementation of the smart city project. Nippon Koei, a Japanese infrastructure company with experience in having executed projects worth ?1.25 lakh crore, and PwC, was among the four consultants short- listed by the PSCDL. Two of the consultants were rejected during the scrutiny while Nippon Koei-PwC and another consultant were found to be eligible for opening the technical and financial bid. “Nippon Koei-PwC had scored highest marks in the technical bid stage and had quoted the lowest amount in the financial bid stage making it the clear contender above the other consultant. The project work is expected to begin from September,” said a senior official. Three stages P. Jawahar, Secretary to Local Administration Department and State Mission Director of Smart Cities, said the PMC would be the main hand-holder and the transaction advisory consultant for PSCDL. The PMC would oversee three stages, including project planning, project designing and implementation. The project planning stage includes feasibility studies, threats and opportunities for growth, financial returns on the investment made and consultation with stakeholders. The consultant will assist in the preparation of the detailed project report, floating of tenders and will provide end-to-end solutions for the projects. This will be incorporated in the DPR and request for proposal. PSCDL has identified 63 projects. Of them, 10 projects, including pedestrian pathway and reconstruction of the Mairie building, have been taken up through various agencies. Core team Mr. Jawahar said that the PMC would have experts from various sectors. It would have a core team that would work with the PSDCL on a day-to-day basis while around 30 experts from the technical expert team would be drawn for various projects. The payment would be made lump sum. Priority list The work is expected to begin from September. Priority will be for bicycle sharing system, bus stand project, integrated city command centre and the grand canal project. Bicycle stations will come up in different locations and plans are on to create 10.3 km of exclusive bicycle track. The command centre will include an advanced city level application integrated system to operate and manage multiple city service operations at a unified station associated with a server with applications such as surveillance, safety, security and law and order, ATCS (area traffic control system) across major junctions, intelligent traffic management, variable message sign boards (VMS), public transport management and fleet monitoring. PSCDL has started planning for the projects with the technical team from the French Development Agency (Agence Francaise de Developpement, AFD).

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