The Board of Bhubaneswar Smart City limited (BSCl) approved the l1 bidder RKD Construction Private limited for implementation of the Smart Janpath Project for redevelopment of Janpath Road including streetscape design, beautification, landscaping, intersection redesign and infrastructure upgrades in Bhubaneswar’s Town Centre District (BTCD) under Smart Cities Mission on Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) mode.
Janpath Streetscape project has been conceived as a part of Bhubaneswar Smart City Proposal. This project mainly focuses on transforming the city’s existing roadway from an automobile-oriented design to a street that is designed to provide safe, comfortable and convenient access for a complete set of users and at the same time creating more active spaces for people to walk and gather.
Janpath provides an urban design opportunity for such development due to its width or the right of way (RoW) and under-utilized spaces along the streets. While the entire road stretch is of 5.5 km from Vani Vihar to Sishu Bhawan Square, the project also includes a 0.3 km-long road from Master Canteen to Bhubaneswar Railway Station. So the total length of the project is of 5.8 km.
It can be mentioned here that while the average RoW varies between 35 m and 65 m, vehicular movement is permitted in 21 metres including the median of 2 metres. The balanced width of the road or the RoW is to be utilised for pedestrian movement, cycle lane, parking of vehicles, landscaping, utility corridors, activity spaces, including vendor kiosks etc and the estimated cost of the project is around Rs 80.50 crore. The work will be completed within 24 months from the starting of the work of the project.
While the tender for the project was published on January 19, 2017, the pre-bid meeting was held on February 23. Thereafter, the BSCl received queries from nine prospective bidders and the last date of submission of proposal was May 15. The Tender Committee meeting which was held under the chairmanship of Managing Director, BSCl on July 25, had a detailed discussion and recommended the financial quotation of M/s. RKD Construction (P) ltd, which was less than the corresponding tender and was found to be the l-1 bidder and was placed before the Company Board for its acceptance.