The government will select consultants to prepare master plans for development of smart cities in Lumbini, Nijgadh and Palungtar area of Gorkha within mid-July.

Currently, the government is evaluating bid documents submitted by various companies interested in preparing the master plan for development of smart cities. 

It has already evaluated technical proposals submitted by these companies. Following this, three consultants have been shortlisted for Lumbini smart city project, six for Nijagadh smart city project and three for Palungtar smart city project.

The government will evaluate their financial proposals on June 30 and select preferred bidders. These preferred bidders will be entrusted with the task of framing the master plans, according to Parag Kayastha, project director of the New Town Project Co-ordination Office (NTPCO).

“We are planning to select the consultants by the end of the current fiscal [which falls in mid-July],” said Kayastha. “The shortlisted consultants will begin the work soon after agreements are signed.”

The consultants, according to Kayastha, will be given a time of nine months to prepare the master plans. 

The master plans will include detailed information on approximate financial resources required to implement the projects, sources of funding and types of infrastructure that needs to be built. 

The master plan, in other words, will basically work as the main guideline for coordinated development of the projects.

The government has allocated a budget of Rs1.04 billion for implementation of New Town Project in the current fiscal year. “We will be spending around Rs145 million in the current fiscal year to conduct preparatory works for development of smart cities in three places,” said Kayastha. 

Although the government has not finalised the location in which these smart cities would be built, and facilities and amenities these urban centres would contain, it has set a target of completing the projects within 2033. 

The government introduced the concept of ‘smart city’ for the first time in 2012. Smart cities exploit the information and communications technology (ICT) to provide various services electronically and have well managed schemes for drinking water, electricity, sewage, hospitals, schools and government offices, among others.