Bhagalpur: The speed of work on 'Smart City Project' at Bhagalpur is likely to be accelerated with the formation of special purpose vehicle (SPV) and approval of Rs 465.71 crore by the state government for undertaking development work. Bhagalpur divisional commissioner has been made the chairperson of the SPV to oversee the project works.

Altogether Rs 1,309 crore will be spent on the project.

Bhagalpur divisional commissioner Ajay Kumar Chowdhary said a meeting of the SVP would be called soon.

"The Smart City Project at Bhagalpur will work with speed and extreme diligence," he told TOI. Bhagalpur municipal commissioner Avanish Kumar Singh said the work under the smart city project would become visible throughout the district after November.

Out of Rs 1,309 crore, nearly Rs 1,106 crore will be used for 'area-based development' in Bhagalpur and the remaining Rs 203 crore is to be utilized for 'pan-city project' development works that envisage application of selected smart solutions to the existing citywide infrastructure.

Application of smart solutions involves the use of technology, information and data to improve the infrastructure and services that aim at having positive effects on the productivity and quality of citizens' lives, district administration sources said.

Under the 'area-based development' projects, Rs 18 crore will be spent on e-governance (electronic governance with the application of information and communication technology for delivering government services, exchange of information communication transactions etc and mobile-governance) aims at providing government services to the people through mobile phones and tablets to deliver services like health, education, banking, other commercial services anytime, anywhere, besides Rs 54.60 on developing information technology infrastructure, the sources said.