The New Indian Express 05.04.2017
No smart city tag for city but GHMC pays a whopping Rs 46 lakh for consultancy
HYDERABAD:
Hyderabad might have backed out of the Smart Cities Mission (SCM)
giving in for Karimnagar’s inclusion, but the same has not prevented the
cash-strapped Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation from shelling out
a whopping `46.26 lakh towards consultancy services.
The GHMC Standing Committee approved the proposal and recommended the
same to the state government a few days ago. It was as per the request
of the Chief Minister that the Central Government replaced Hyderabad
with Karimnagar for SCM last year. Warangal is another city selected by
the Centre for the mission.
However,
before Hyderabad was replaced from the SCM, the civic body had appointed
consultant M/s Knight Frank (India) Private Limited for preparation of
proposal for assisting GHMC to participate in the smart cities
challenge. The consultant prepared proposals and submitted to GHMC and
charged `40.40 lakh towards fee and `5.85 lakh towards service tax.
The
above consultant was one among the 11 empanelled consultant listed by
the Centre. The consultant prepared city-wide concept plan, draft smart
city proposal and final city draft proposal.
On Dec 7, 2015, the consultant was verbally informed that state
government has decided not to pursue the smart city challenge proposal
for Greater Hyderabad. However, by that time most of the work for smart
city challenge proposal was completed.
Since the GHMC had already engaged the
consultant for preparation of smart city challenge proposal, the
consultancy charges payable to the extent of work done, if any, be paid
by GHMC, as per the state government instructions.
The
consultant submitted the smart city challenge proposal as per the
template of Ministry of Urban Development (MOUD) and the total work
entrusted to them is complete and if the proposal was forwarded to MoUD,
the consultant will be eligible for 100 per cent payment for
consultancy from MoUD. However, the consultants agreed to receive 60 per
cent of the contract price from GHMC, since the smart challenge
proposal not forwarded to the Central Government.
SCM is an urban renewal and retrofitting programme launched by Central
Government with a mission to develop 109 cities all over the country
making them citizen friendly and sustainable in June 2015.