Two key urban projects are all set to change the face of the city next year.

From cleaner streets to ghats with better facilities — people can expect a lot from the town planners during Chhath, and more importantly, after the biggest festival of the state. The wait would end in the next couple of years as the Ganga Riverfront Development and Patna Solid Waste Management projects have started with the bidding stages.

While the door-to-door collection of garbage and disposal of waste from the streets under the solid waste management project is expected to start from the coming financial year, the riverfront development project envisaging development of 20 ghats along the city utilising funds approved by World Bank is scheduled to be completed in 26 months from the date of commencement of work.

“We have floated the tenders for procurement of equipment and door-to-door collection of garbage under Patna Solid Waste Management project in the last week of November. A pre-bid meeting with the intending firms is also slated on November 22. The last date for receiving bids is December 10 and it would take another two to three months for work to be awarded the selected firm(s) and start the work. We can hope that the citizens would witness garbage collection and disposal from April next year,” said a senior Patna Municipal Corporation (PMC) official.

The PMC has taken six years after the solid waste project was sanctioned under centrally sponsored Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). The project was approved by the ministry of urban development on March 28, 2007, for an estimated outlay of Rs 36.95 crore. The PMC board gave its final nod to the project at its meeting held on September 21 this year.

As the project is to be executed under the public-private-partnership (PPP) mode, the private party engaged in doing door-to-door collection would also take user charges from residents. According to the approved proposal, domestic households would need to pay Rs 60 per month, Rs 300 per month for shops, Rs 1,000 per month for restaurants, Rs 10,000 per month for hotels and offices, and up to Rs 10,000 for hospitals.

Apart from garbage management, bidding for the Patna Ganga Riverfront Development Project started from last week. Sources in Bihar Urban Infrastructure Development Corporation (BUIDCo), the nodal agency for the project, expect that there would not be much hassle in getting bidders for the project as funds are already available.

“After World Bank approved the environment and social impact assessment and further sanctioned funds for the riverfront project, we floated tenders for the same. We would accept bids till December 22 and it would take another two months for awarding the contract to the selected firm and start work,” said a senior BUIDCo official.

Ganga riverfront development project envisages development of 6.6km and 15ft-wide walkway along the 20 ghats, which would be complemented with 500 benches, decorative lights, trees, lavatories and kiosks along the bank of the river Ganga.