According to the Utakal Chamber of Commerce and Industry (UCCI), the Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL) released two RFPs, one on May 25, 2016 and another on May 28, 2016, and the PQ criteria framed therein is not in line with any of the proposals of Smart Cities of India.

UCCI director general Rajen Padhi said he had interactions with consultant Pan India, which is working for the dream to reality of Smart City concept of Bhubaneswar, and got the anomalies.

The RFP was uploaded in the website on June 6, 2016 and pre-bid meeting was held on June 8, leaving no time for the interested participants to come for the proposed project. The RPF contradicts the Centre’s policy of promoting “Make in India” and appears to be a biased approach, said Padhi.

The eligibility criteria set is not as per Government policy and is in violation of CVC norms, he said.

While funding agencies like World Bank, ADB, KFW and JICA encourage participation of domestic consultants through JV / consortium approach, the BSCL has not allowed so, he alleged.

While Area Based Development (ABD) and Pan City solution are two integral and interdependent parts of a Smart City, yet they have been separated trough floating of two separate tenders. There is no such methodology available in the Smart City policy of the Centre.

Cities like Bhopal,  Jaipur, Pune, Ahmedabad, Kochi, Kakinada, Ludhiana, Indore and Solapur etc have clubbed ABD and Pan City as one package due to foreseeing the problem related to abnormal delays in inter linkages that may have impact on time and cost, Padhi pointed out.

....