The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation’s ‘Urban Street Furniture’ project aimed at providing smart and modern public infrastructure on arterial roads has been finally set in motion.
The project envisioned as a provider of infrastructure on a large-scale and a revenue generator to the civic body was proposed more than two years ago. It was finalised recently with the city’s outdoor advertising firm Prakash Arts coming forward to take up the project in response to VMC’s tender calls. The firm was recently given a letter of acceptance (LoP) by the civic body.
Urban Street Furniture includes a huge number of swanky bus shelters with and without air-condition, enough to replace all the existing bus shelters in the city, toilets, small roadside vending kiosks for food and other products, benches, garbage bins, and police booths.
“The project work will be started soon and public utilities such as bus shelters, toilets, kiosks, display boards and others will be developed all over the city by the firm. The corporation will receive ₹2.52 crore revenue per year with a fee escalation of 5% every year for the next 10 years,” VMC Commissioner J. Nivas told The Hindu .
Meanwhile, a model of the airconditioned bus shelter is being built on M.G. Road near Siddhartha Mahila Kalasala in Labbipet.
“The construction of the model bus shelter is almost complete and will be inaugurated soon. Once it is done, the placement and location of other utilities will be finalised by the corporation based on a detailed study on the necessity,” said Superintending Engineer (Projects) J. Rama Krishna.
Also, the project includes construction of police booths for traffic police and several locations. The new booths with bigger roofs will replace the existing vertical booths, he said.
The contracting firm Prakash Arts, which is going to invest about ₹30 crore, has to build, operate and maintain all the infrastructure for 10 years before transferring them to the civic body. The firm will, meanwhile, earn revenue by selling space on the utilities for advertisements.
