Private consultants to keep eye on Rs 120 crore smart Chennai projects
Chennai: With the metropolis witnessing a heap of projects under the Union government’s ambitious, smart city mission, the staff-crunched Greater Chennai Corporation has finally resorted to the appointing project management consultant (PMCs) to monitor the progress of all the smart city projects.
Presently, the Chennai Corporation has been undertaking and floated tenders for carrying out as many as 9 projects costing to a tune of Rs 118.76 crore. According to a senior Chennai Corporation official, the appointment of PMC is essential to ensure the timely completion of projects. “As of now, one PMC will be appointed for current projects. All the future smart city projects will also be monitored by the private consultants,” the senior official added.
It is learnt that the Greater Chennai Corporation also had floated tenders inviting PMC firms. The PMC would monitor the advancement of 9 projects and evaluate the quality of the work periodically. PMC should ensure the quality of the work and act as a bridge between contractors and the civic body. PMC also should review and conduct periodic site inspections to monitor construction work, says the tender document.
“The PMC will help the corporation to make estimations for projects. As the PMC will be entailed with managing records on day to day basis, it will be easy to find irregularities,” a Chennai Corporation official said.
The civic body has envisaged the completion of smart city projects within 24 months. “The PMC will perform their duty until the completion of all the projects,” the official added. Meanwhile, Jayaram Venkatesan of Arappor Iyakkam said that the Chennai Corporation should release the periodic progress of the smart city projects. “Third-party monitoring will fructify only if the civic body uploads periodical reports on its website,” added.
It may be recalled that the civic body had also invited PMC firms to assist the Chennai Corporation in monitoring the road works that includes 387.35 km of bus route roads and 5,623 km of interior roads in 15 zones of the Greater Chennai Corporation. Earlier, the civic body had undertaken stormwater drain works extending more than 370 km with the help of PMC.
Smart Projects
