New Delhi: Poorest of the poor state it may be. But that doesnt stop its tribal rulers from dreaming big. Really big.
The newly-formed, predominantly tribal state of Jharkhand wants to build its new capital city at a whopping cost of Rs 10,000 crore. With such exorbitant money involved, over a dozen multinational companies are engaged in a fierce battle to bag the contract.
The MNCs have teamed up with leading Indian town-planners to make a bidding. The state government had floated a global tender to reconstruct the new capital at Ranchi.
Over two dozen companies bought the tender papers, of which 14 have already made their bids. Only those companies, which had earlier set up a township of half a million costing more than Rs 2000 million and earn Rs 100 million from consultancy, qualify for the bid.
The brief is to do landscaping, plan architecture, develop water supply and distribution, power generation and carry out digital mapping and geotechnical investigations.
Prominent consortiums are:

• High Point Rendel of the UK in association with the US-based Edaw Ltd and Kikken Sekkel (Tokyo) with the Ranchi-based Swastik group.
• The Mumbai-based MSCN Belkar with two UK-based companies: Chapman and Hutting and the Ranchi-based Mecon Ltd.
• Arch Consultancy Services (New Delhi) with the Singapore-based Mainhat.
• State-run RITES with Tata Consultancy Services.
• Development Consultants (Kolkata) with Chaudhary and Littlefield of the UK.
• Cidco (Mumbai) with Tata Consultancy Engineering.
• Gruven Associates (Mumbai) with Gadi Pvt Ltd.
• Ledanswain and Devis with P B Consultants.
• APC, Redicon Pvt Ltd (New Delhi) with an Indonesian company.
• Engineering India Ltd with a California-based company.