Three management consultants companies- Rudrabhishek Enterprises (REPL), Grant Thornton and ABN Consulting– have been selected by the Varanasi Municipal Corporation (VMC) for the implementation of smart city project in the city.
All the three companies will prepare detailed project reports (DPR) on various components such as water supply and sewerage systems, intelligent traffic management, smart security system, heritage conservation, tourism promotion activities, etc.
“The Varanasi Smart City is certainly going to be uniquely challenging for us. While keeping the core essence of the city intact, we have to make the city smart, so that it becomes a model for replication,” said Pradeep Misra, chairman and managing director, REPL.
VMC has decided to take up area based development (ABD) , along with the pan-city solutions.
Their is a plan to develop an area of 1,389 acres, which includes retrofitting of old city along river Ganga comprising of major temples, heritage sites and cultural places.
Varanasi was selected under the Smart City Mission last September.
Varanasi finally bagged the coveted smart city tag in September last year when the government announced the names of 27 more cities in the second round under its flagship ‘100 Smart Cities’ mission.
