More than three years after the council of Mangaluru City Corporation approved the taking up of a bus terminal project at Pumpwell, the proposal has taken a leap with the council on Tuesday agreeing to take it up under a Design-Build-Finance-Operate-Transfer (DBFOT) model.
The council approved the DBFOT model submitted by the Chettinad Builders Pvt. Ltd. According to it, the project can be taken up on 7.23 acres now with the corporation.
Mohammed Nazir, Commissioner of the corporation, told the council that according to the model submitted by the private company, 198 buses could be parked on two floors in the terminal. In addition, the terminal would have a multi-level car parking facility, two-wheeler parking facility, a mall, a theatre and shops in the commercial complex. He said that the bidder who would take up the project would have to hand over it to the corporation after 33 years of completion.
The Commissioner said once the government approved the proposal an expression of interest would be called to take up the project that might cost ₹400 crore.
As Mayor Kavita Sanil gave approval for the DBFOT model on November 9, expecting that the council would not oppose it, a proposal has been placed before the special purpose vehicle (which is a company) for approving projects for Mangaluru under the smart city mission, to allow for taking up the terminal project under the same, he said. The Commissioner said that the Board of the SPV would meet on Wednesday.
The council also agreed to take up a modern market-cum-commercial complex project at Kankanady at an estimated cost of ₹49.50 crore. The Mayor gave in advance approval for this on November 23.
According to this proposal, ₹22.50 crore (45% of the project cost) would be raised as loan from the Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation (KUIDFC), ₹17 crore (35%) would be taken as loan from any nationalised bank and the balance ₹10 crore (20%) would be borne by the corporation.
The council agreed to send a proposal to the SPV for smart city mission for approving the project under the mission.
Referring to sending the proposals to the SPV, the Commissioner said that it made the formalities pertaining to the government approvals faster. In addition, as the SPV had a project management consultancy quality of the project could be maintained.