Bhopal Metropolitan Area: State Government Mulls Over Roping In Consultancy Agency For Survey

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The state government is in a dilemma whether to rope in a consultancy agency for the survey work of Bhopal Metropolitan Area directly or float a tender in this regard.

A senior officer of the Bhopal Development Authority, which is the nodal agency for the project, said on condition of anonymity that additional chief secretary Sanjay Dubey was currently weighing the option to rope in the consultancy agency.

A couple of months ago, a tender was floated to rope in a consultancy agency for various surveys needed to be carried out under the Bhopal Metropolitan Area.

But the financial bid of this tender was not opened and it was kept on hold. In this tender, two companies, including the company which is doing the consultancy work for Indore Metropolitan Project had participated.

A discussion is also underway whether to give consultancy work directly to the School of Planning and Architecture (SPA), Bhopal, which has been established by the Government of India. The reason is that in comparison to the company hired for consultancy work for the project, the SPA is ready to work on a far more reasonable price.

Extensive survey

Once roped in, the consultancy firm will survey which pockets of the project can be developed as industrial hubs, where irrigation facilities are needed, spots where big dams should be constructed and so on.

Gazette notification awaited

The urban administration department is waiting for the publication of the Bhopal Metropolitan Act into the gazette notification. Once the gazette is published, it will start preparing rules and regulations for the project.

8k km project

The Bhopal Metropolitan Project would be of around or more than 8000 square kilometres. It will comprise identified areas of Bhopal, Sehore, Raisen, Vidisha and Biora (Rajgarh). It has been decided to undertake planned development of land and boost industrial and business activities to promote the local economy.