Bhubaneswar, Jan. 4: The municipal corporation has decided to hire a consultant to help get the city good credit rating from the Centre in a bid to raise funds for execution of various infrastructure projects here under the central schemes.

The move aims to garner more funds from the capital market by floating municipal bonds, which will be possible only if the civic body gets a good credit rating from the ministry of urban development by March. The selected consultant will help the civic body improve its performance in various fields.

The ratings will be given on the basis of five parameters - legal framework, economic base and demographics, service delivery, managerial assessment and financial performance. The Union ministry started the process in September last year and provided "A" ratings to civic bodies of Ahemdabad and New Delhi.

The ministry anticipated that the Smart City and the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (Amrut) schemes require huge investments, which cannot be executed only from the funds of the Centre or the state government, as the credit rating was introduced as one of the reform milestones in the sector.

"The proposed infrastructure projects in the city need huge investments for timely execution. We need to take up many projects in the public-private-partnership mode and credit rating would help get the investment from the capital market. We are going to hire the consultant, which will help us get good a rating," said mayor Ananta Narayan Jena.

Sources said the consultant would be hired through competitive bidding. "We have already invited request for proposal to hire the consultant. The process is likely to get completed in the next two to three months. The selected firm will draw a revamp plan and show us ways to improve our performance under different parameters," said a senior civic body official.

The city proposes to invest Rs 4,537 crore under the Smart City Project and Rs 461 crore under Amrut in the next five years. The Centre will provide Rs 600 crore for the Smart City and around Rs 230 crore under Amrut while the rest will be borne by the state government either from their own funds or through the proposed municipal bonds after credit ratings.

"I hope the credit rating and this way of raising funds helps, but the civic body should make sure it gets a good score," said Himanshu Tripathy, an economics teacher.