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Upbeat on business opportunities from the Centre’s Smart Cities Mission, public sector National Buildings Construction Corporation Ltd (NBCC) has identified five to seven cities with three different business models for project execution.
“Most of the cities are talking to us. Funds are the most important component of smart cities and that’s why cities are going for re-development and monetisation of properties. Here we have a big role to play. We are already present in few cities, in States such as Rajasthan and Odisha. New Delhi Municipal Corporation is also talking to us,” said Anoop Kumar Mittal, Chairman-cum-Managing Director, NBCC. He refused to divulge the names of cities that were on the company’s radar.
In January, the Centre announced that 20 cities had bagged the coveted ‘smart city’ tag.
Stating that more clarity would come once special purpose vehicles (SPVs) are in place and requirement of funds is estimated, Mittal said there were three models under which the company can work.
“One, we can be a partner in the SPV. Two, we can be project management consultants. Three, we could work on behalf of the municipal corporation and State government to re-develop properties and generate funds for the municipal corporation, which can then use those funds as their equity in the SPV,” he added.
The public sector company is confident that it will be able to secure orders under the government’s flagship mission. “There is a huge business opportunity. Since we have experience in re-development projects, I feel we will be preferred,” Mittal said.
NBCC is currently engaged in re-development of East Kidwai Nagar, New Delhi, which is a ₹5,000-crore project. It is also awaiting Cabinet approval to start work on three new re-development projects in Delhi — Netaji Nagar, Kasturba Nagar and Thyagaraj Nagar. Besides, it will take up re-development work at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi.
According to data from the Ministry of Urban Development, of the 20 smart cities, Bhubaneswar, Ahmedabad, Jabalpur, Indore and Bhopal will go for re-development of certain areas.
Apart from the smart cities projects, the company has also inked a tie-up with IBM to integrate smart IT-based solutions in New Moti Bagh and East Kidwai Nagar townships.
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