Spanish firm selected for Patna smart city project

A Spanish company, with expertise in infrastructure and urban planning, has been selected as the management consultant for the state capital's smart city mission.
Eptisa Servicios de Ingenieria SL was chosen as the project management consultant at the meeting of Board of Directors of Patna Smart City Limited Company, the city's divisional commissioner, Anand Kishore, told reporters.
He said the schemes under the Patna Smart City project will involve an estimated expenditure of over 2700 crore. Of that 930 crore will be provided by the Centre and the state government.
"Another 982.31 crore will come from the convergence of Govt of India schemes and Govt of Bihar schemes and urban local bodies' resources. The remaining Rs 800.37 crore is likely to be raised under the PPP model," he said.

A global tender was floated for the project following which several firms from various countries placed their bid.
Last week, five companies that fulfilled the eligibility criteria were shortlisted. Of those five companies, Eptisa made the lowest bid, Kishor said.

"The Spanish firm also agreed to our condition of deploying a team of 43 experts to implement the smart city project. These experts would be from the fields of urban planning, infrastructure, information technology, transport and finance," he said.
Eptisa Servicios de Ingenieria SL has a global presence, with 1800 professionals offering their services across 45 countries.
In India and Bangladesh alone, 438 experts from the company are involved in various projects, the divisional commissioner said.

"The Spanish company has been asked to begin work within three weeks. The company is already providing its services as project management consultant for smart city projects of Indore, Jaipur and Udaipur," he added.