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Government to develop 12 heritage cities; blueprint by 2017

The government is in the process of appointing what it calls anchors for the project, who would create the blueprint for each of the cities and plans to complete the planning process by March 2017. It has already floated Expression of Interest (EoI) for the development of the heritage cities.

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Varanasi is one of the cities chosen for the ambitious project
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The government has gone ahead with the mega project of developing 12 heritage cities across the country. Called HRIDAY Scheme or National Heritage Development and Augmentation Yojana, it focuses on development of civic infrastructure development projects around a dozen heritage cities -- Ajmer, Amaravati, Amritsar, Badami, Dwaraka, Gaya, Kanchipuram, Mathura, Puri, Varanasi, Velankanni and Warangal. 

The government is in the process of appointing what it calls anchors for the project, who would create the blueprint for each of the cities and plans to complete the planning process by March 2017. It has already floated Expression of Interest (EoI) for the development of the heritage cities.

The project would give a significant boost to construction and development of the historic cities of Ajmer, Amaravati, Amritsar, Badami, Dwaraka, Gaya, Kanchipuram, Mathura, Puri, Varanasi, Velankanni and Warangal, officials of companies associated with construction activities said.

"The HRIDAY city anchors shall prepare city specific plans based on sustainable civic infrastructure development plan for areas around tangible heritage assets identified; city specific Draft Project Report toolkits with urban design specifications; prepare concept plan for development and renovation of the city museum and cultural park." the document said.

The EoI has been floated by National Institution of Urban Affairs, the New Delhi-based body which, incidentally was earlier mandated to handle the Smart City plan, a bigger project.

A EoI earlier floated by NIUA from consultants for the Smart City project has now been withdrawn as some other body is likely to handle the responsibility.

The city anchors for the HRIDAY would have to monitor and evaluate the execution of the project with respect to heritage focused and heritage-sensitive design, construction methodology and architectural intent for the entire project life cycle.

Preferences for working out the blue-print for the projects would be given to agencies based out of the respective cities or those which are conversant with the rich cultural heritages of those cities.

The urban development ministry while announcing the project in January has initially sanctioned Rs.500 crore in the first phase for these 12 cities under the scheme, including Rs.89 crore for Varanasi, Rs 69 crore for Amritsar and Rs 22 crore for Dwaraka.

The fees for the anchors also depends upon the size and scope of the project in the respective cities and varies from Rs 25 lakh for Varanasi to Rs 8 lakh for Puri.

The bids of the consultants would be opened on May 1, and as per the timetable, the selected anchors would have to find out the existing Infrastructure gaps in the cities within 20 days from award of contract and then finalise infrastructure development plans within a month from that date.

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