The Greater Ranchi Development Agency (GRDA) Limited on Monday invited expression of interest for selecting a consultant-cum-architect designer for creating a new capital city for the state, a dream that has been pending for the past 12 years.

Sources said once selected the architecture firm would need to take care of designing important buildings like the Governor’s residence (Raj Bhavan), the chief minister’s office and residence, the Jharkhand Vidhan Sabha, secretariat and residential quarters for bureaucrats.

Speaking to The Telegraph, GRDA managing director Avinash Kumar confirmed that they had invited expression of interest from reputed firms or companies.

“Interested parties will have to prepare the architectural design of the core of the capital city that will consist of the Assembly, secretariat and housing quarters. The last date to apply is January 3, 2013,” Kumar said.

Delhi-based firm Consulting Engineering Services (CES) had been last year been selected to prepare a blueprint for the project.

CES, which had been roped in for Rs 18 crore, has handed over a draft of the blueprint — to be executed in three phases — to the urban development authorities.

While the first phase of the project will come up in around 1,900 acres of HEC land, the other two phases are scheduled to be executed in the Kanke- Sukurhutu and Namkum areas.

Chief minister Arjun Munda, who had recently taken part in the inauguration of Chhattisgarh’s new capital area near Raipur, has also directed the state officials to pull up their socks and ensure that the project in Jharkhand was executed on time.

The government is likely to make budgetary allocations for the new capital city in the next fiscal.