Coimbatore Corporation, as part of the Smart Cities Mission project, proposes to install 30 smart benches or solar trees in the city.
According to corporation officials, the civic body had installed a model tree near the VOC Park at ₹3.50 lakh so as to provide an idea to the bidders to the tender for erecting the benches across the city.
Devices
The smart benches would be solar powered to enable charging mobile phones and running wi-fi hotspot, LED lighting, sensors to gather various data and temperature and other devices.
The officials said the objective was to make streets and public properties smarter and greener with the smart benches.
The benches would also have temperature-controlled seating to ensure that the temperature remained pleasant in all the weather conditions and should be built of such materials that would be resistant to vandalism.
The officials also said that the corporation would not incur any cost in the project as it was looking at implementing it through the public-private partnership model, wherein the successful bidder would invest in the benches and recover investment by way of advertisement fee.
The corporation would also have a right on the share of the bidder's revenue for renting out the place.
The corporation had floated the tender and was now looking at evaluating the bids of the bidders, the officials added.