Patna, June 23: A fresh exercise has begun to prepare a city development plan (CDP) for the state capital.

The move comes five years after the first city development plan (CDP) for the state capital was published by the urban development department and then thrown into a cold box after a need was felt to revise it.

According to sources, the Department for International Development (DFID) of the British government has hired a private consultant to prepare a detailed and “error free” CDP for the city upgrade.

According to sources, an international firm — Intercontinental Consultants and Technocrats Pvt Ltd — has been hired by DFID to create a revised CDP, which will then be presented to the state urban department for approval.

The projects will be funded under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), a scheme of the government of India.

The plan is being chalked out under “Samvardhan” — support programme for urban reforms — a six-year (2010-2016) partnership project between the state government and the DFID, UK.

A team comprising officials from the consultants held a meeting with ward councilllors of Patna Municipal Corporation to discuss civic-related issues in each 72 wards under the agency.

Around 20 ward councillors, apart from mayor Afzal Imam and deputy mayor Vinay Kumar Pappu, attended the meeting and apprised the team with problems like waterlogging, poor drainage and water supply system, road, traffic, street lighting, waste disposal and sanitation and lack of amusement facilities. They also suggested that the team prepare a ward-wise plan to ensure that all local issues are identified and taken care of.

“All the issues raised by the ward councillors will be incorporated in the CDP. We have been working on it for the past month-and-a-half and a final report will be presented to the government by the first week of August this year,” said a member of the team.

According to sources, the preparation of CDP is the pre-requisite to obtain funding under JNNURM. The objective of the CDP is to identify infrastructure projects to be implemented under this scheme along with the proposed implementation mechanism, including the Private Sector Participation (PSP) strategy. The CDP would also focus on urban reforms to be implemented to improve the health of ailing urban local bodies.

“The goal of the CDP includes a collective city vision and action plan aimed at improved urban governance and management, increasing investment to expand employment and services, and systematic and sustained reductions in urban poverty. Patna CDP will be a comprehensive document that will look at the existing situation, will identify the issues, lay down sector-visions, formulate strategies, and will provide details of the financial requirements,” the member also said.

He added: “The final CDP will propose various projects and schemes for the city which will be implemented through collaboration between the state and Centre. The proposed cost of these projects are estimated around Rs 3,618 crore.”