Choice Consultancy Services Pvt. Ltd.
Did you know that India builds roughly 34 kilometers of national highways every single day? That is fast enough to lay a brand-new road from New Delhi to Mumbai in just about six weeks. Yet, behind every mega-highway, smart city grid, or clean water project lies a fierce, highly competitive battle that has nothing to do with pouring concrete. It is the complex race for data, strategy, and policy alignment. In today’s hyper-competitive public infrastructure consulting industry, traditional blueprints are no longer enough. Modern consultancies must act as multi-disciplinary powerhouses, balancing rapid tech integration with complex bureaucratic frameworks, where success is judged solely by how fast a vision transforms into a functional, ground-level reality.
Standing at the absolute forefront of this dynamic sector is Choice Consultancy Services Pvt. Ltd. (CCSPL). Founded as the public sector advisory and infrastructure consulting arm of Choice International Limited—a powerhouse group listed on the BSE and NSE with a market capitalization of approximately `17,000 Crore—CCSPL has carved out an extraordinary story of growth and achievement. Guided by the strategic leadership of Mr. Bhalchandra Murarka, CEO, and Mr. Nitesh Agarwal, COO, the firm has evolved into a major engineering and project development powerhouse, recently strengthening its capabilities through the strategic acquisition of Ayoleeza Consultants and the ongoing acquisition of Feedback Infra. Together, their vision has enabled CCSPL to bridge the critical gap between ambitious infrastructure planning and flawless on-ground execution, transforming large public investments into meaningful outcomes that accelerate India’s nation-building journey.
Operating across more than 20 states and touching every tier of India’s federal structure, CCSPL works by providing comprehensive support across the entire lifecycle of a project—from concept to commissioning. The firm integrates credible, multi-sector depth across transport, water and sanitation, urban development, and public financial management with an in-house technology backbone. By deploying specialized Project Management Units (PMUs) and executing advanced, data-driven planning like LiDAR-based highway surveys, they bring unmatched execution standards to India’s major flagship programs.
In the spotlight are Mr. Bhalchandra Murarka, CEO, and Mr. Nitesh Agarwal, COO of Choice Consultancy Services Pvt. Ltd. in an interview of our prestigious “The Most Visionary Public Sector Infrastructure Consulting Firms Shaping Nation-Building Projects – 2026” edition- learn from his insights and valuable lessons as an entrepreneur to excel and make it best company .stay tuned and know his tale of success.
Prime Insights: Can you introduce your firm and share its core mission in public sector infrastructure consulting?
Choice Consultancy Services Pvt. Ltd. (CCSPL) is the public sector advisory and infrastructure consulting subsidiary of Choice International Limited, a listed group on BSE and NSE with a market cap of ~17,000 Cr. Choice Consultancy Services Pvt. Ltd. (CCSPL) is a multi-disciplinary infrastructure and governance advisory firm serving Central and State governments, Urban Local Bodies (ULBs), Multilateral Agencies, and Public Institutions across India with a mission of becoming a comprehensive consulting platform in the Physical & Digital Infrastructure and Public Finance.
Our core mission is to strengthen public institutions and accelerate infrastructure delivery through technically rigorous, policy-aligned, and implementation-ready consulting services. Over decades of engagement, we have built deep capabilities across transport (national and state highways), water and sanitation, urban development, public financial management, transaction advisory, cooperatives, MSME development, renewable energy, capacity building, agriculture, and health making us one of the broadest-spectrum public sector advisory practices in the country. Our work spans 20+ states and has touched virtually every tier of India’s federal structure from district mineral foundations to central ministries.
Also, the strategic acquisition of Ayoleeza Consultants Pvt. Ltd. has significantly enhanced our technical capabilities across Railways, Metro Systems, Roads, Highways, Bridges, and Urban Infrastructure, enabling us to deliver comprehensive and high-impact engineering and project development solutions nationwide.
Further, Choice Consultancy Services Private Limited is currently in the process of acquiring Feedback Infra Pvt. Ltd. through CIRP, a premier consulting organization with vast credentials in the fields of Transport, Energy, and Urban Infrastructure segment.
Prime Insights: What inspired the establishment of your organization, and how has your journey evolved in supporting nation-building projects?
Choice Consultancy was founded on the recognition that India’s ambitious infrastructure programmes funded by the Union Budget, State Governments and Multilateral agencies required professional advisory, consulting & implementation support to translate allocations into outcomes. The gap between programme design and on-ground implementation was and remains significant. We positioned ourselves to bridge that gap.
We started from Public Finance and then ventured into Urban & other Infrastructure. In transport and highway consulting, we delivered Feasibility Studies and Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) for national and state highways across states, for clients including MoRT&H, Border Roads Organisation, and State PWDs. We subsequently expanded into water and sanitation (Jal Jeevan Mission, AMRUT 2.0, World Bank-assisted water programmes), urban infrastructure, public financial management (double entry accounting reforms across ULBs), and PMU services for District Mineral Foundations and state-level bodies.
Today, our footprint spans 20+ states with active engagements from Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh in the north to Maharashtra, Goa, and Karnataka in the west, and Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar, and West Bengal in the east. Each engagement has deepened our institutional knowledge, expanded our network, and strengthened our ability to deliver at scale. We are proud to have been part of many major Flagship Programs of Centre & States.
Prime Insights: What are the key infrastructure sectors you specialize in, and how do your services contribute to public development?
Our public sector consulting practice spans a uniquely comprehensive range of domains:
- Transport & Highways: Feasibility Study and DPR preparation for national highways (MoRT&H, BRO, NHIDCL) and state highways (PWD Maharashtra, ADB-funded MRIP), Independent Engineering services, Road Safety Audits, and OMT advisory — covering 3,000+ lane km across multiple states.
- Water & Sanitation: DPR preparation and PMC services under Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), AMRUT 2.0, and programmes across Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Jharkhand, and Odisha including rural and urban water supply, sewerage, and FSTPs.
- Urban Development & Governance: Town Planning, urban infrastructure DPRs, GIS-based property tax reform, PMAY advisory, and Smart City support across Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Maharashtra.
- Public Financial Management: Double-entry accounting reforms and capacity building across 600+ ULBs in 10+ states; & revenue augmentation of ULBs.
- PMU & Project Management: Establishment and operation of PMUs for District Mineral Foundations (Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand), MPLAD/MLALAD monitoring, revenue augmentation for ULBs.
- Cooperatives & MSME: Digital transformation of 13,000+ PACS across 7 states, RAMP scheme implementation across Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Chhattisgarh, and ZED certification facilitation nationally.
- Renewable Energy, Agriculture, Health & Capacity Building: Solar development under KUSUM scheme, PMC for water supply schemes solarisation, agricultural infrastructure appraisal, national health surveys, and 1 lakh+ training hours in financial management and governance.
Prime Insights: How does your firm support government agencies and public sector organizations in planning and executing large-scale infrastructure projects?
Choice provides structured support across the full project lifecycle — from concept to commissioning.
At the planning stage, we conduct demand assessments, field surveys (including LiDAR-based surveys for highway DPRs), technical feasibility studies, institutional diagnostics, and financial structuring. Our DPR preparation capability spans highways, rural and urban water supply schemes, urban infrastructure, and industrial estates — producing bid-ready documents that reduce approval timelines and procurement risks.
At the institutional structuring stage, we establish and operate Project Management Units (PMUs) — deploying multi-disciplinary teams covering engineering, finance, environment, social development, and MIS functions. Our PMU track record includes District Mineral Foundation Trusts in Odisha, Chhattisgarh, and Jharkhand; MPLAD/MLALAD monitoring in Ranchi; urban industrial parks in Chhattisgarh; revenue monitoring across Jharkhand ULBs.
For multilateral-assisted programmes, we ensure full compliance with agency procurement guidelines, environmental and social safeguard requirements, and financial management standards — drawing on our experience with World Bank & ADB funded projects.
During implementation, our Independent Engineering and Third-Party Inspection (TPIA) services covering highway packages and JJM works across states provide government clients with objective quality assurance, progress monitoring, and contract management support.
Prime Insights: What differentiates your consulting approach in delivering sustainable and impactful infrastructure solutions?
Three attributes distinguish Choice’s consulting model.
First, genuine multi-sector depth. Unlike single-sector consultancies, Choice operates with credible domain expertise across transport, water, urban, finance, governance, cooperatives, MSMEs, agriculture, renewable energy, and health. This breadth allows us to bring cross-sectoral insights to complex problems. The company is firmly outcome-oriented, dedicated to delivering meaningful and measurable results for its clients.
Second, implementation orientation. Our engagements are consistently skewed toward execution — DPR preparation that is bid-ready, PMUs that are operational from day one, training programmes that produce measurable competency improvements. A core focus of the firm is the innovative use of IT to enhance service delivery, coupled with a strong emphasis on timely execution. Above all we do not stop at reports; we stay through implementation.
Third, scale with quality. Our credentials demonstrate assignments across 20+ states, 600+ ULBs, 13,000+ cooperatives, and 3,000+ km of road networks — without compromising on technical rigour. Whether it is a LiDAR-based survey for highway or a PACS digital transformation in Bihar, we bring the same standards of professional delivery.
This combination of breadth, implementation focus, and demonstrated scale backed by our status as a listed entity makes Choice a uniquely reliable partner for governments seeking long-term advisory relationships.
Prime Insights: Can you highlight a landmark project or milestone that reflects your contribution to national development?
Several engagements stand out as emblematic of our contribution.
The Digital Transformation of Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies (PACS) where Choice served as System Integrator for NABARD — is among the most impactful. We have digitised 13,000+ PACS across 7 states (Bihar, Haryana, Punjab, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka), directly improving credit access and financial transparency for millions of farmers. Bihar alone covered all 38 districts and 4,477 PACS.
Our PWD Maharashtra highway package (10 packages, Hybrid Annuity Mode) represents one of the largest state highway DPR assignments in recent years.
In urban governance, our accounting reform programme across 600+ ULBs supported by World Bank and DFID funding fundamentally transformed municipal financial management practices at scale.
Our engagement as Knowledge Partner for Bureau of Investment Promotion in Rajasthan, serving all investors for the Government of Rajasthan’s flagship investment summit, reflects our growing role as a strategic institutional partner beyond project-level advisory.
Prime Insights: How do you integrate innovation, technology, and data-driven insights into infrastructure planning and project management?
At the core of our approach is an in-house technology team that develops and maintains proprietary tools tailored to the specific demands of public sector project delivery. Rather than relying solely on off-the-shelf solutions, we have built internal capabilities in Project Management, Data Management, and Monitoring and Evaluation, enabling us to customise systems to the workflows, reporting requirements, and compliance standards of government programmes.
Our project management tools provide real-time visibility into physical and financial progress, milestone tracking, and early-warning mechanisms for delays, equipping both our teams and client institutions with the information they need to act decisively. Our data management systems ensure that large volumes of field data from surveys, inspections, and programme monitoring are captured, validated, and made available for analysis in structured, audit-ready formats.
On the analytics side, we increasingly apply data-driven insights to infrastructure planning, whether in demand forecasting, cost benchmarking, risk identification, or programme performance assessment. This allows us to move client conversations from intuition-based to evidence-based decision-making.
We recognise that technology in public sector consulting is a journey, not a destination. As we grow, we continue to invest in upgrading our tools, integrating emerging technologies, and building the internal talent that keeps our advisory practice at the frontier. Our goal is to be a firm where every engagement, regardless of sector or scale, benefits from a technology backbone that improves quality, reduces risk, and accelerates outcomes for government clients.
Prime Insights: What role does sustainability and environmental responsibility play in your consulting framework?
Sustainability is not a separate workstream at Choice, it is embedded in how we approach sector problems.
In water and sanitation, our DPR and PMC work under Jal Jeevan Mission, AMRUT 2.0, and the Rajasthan Water Sector Restructuring Project (RWSRPD) incorporates source sustainability, environmental management, and water quality improvement as core design parameters. Our DPR for Quality Improvement, Environmental Management, and Tourism Enhancement for three dams in Jaipur (Kanota, Chandlai, Nevta) is an example of integrated water-environment advisory.
DPRs for the Solarisation of Water Supply Schemes in Maharashtra and Irrigation Schemes in Rajasthan reflect our continued commitment to environmental sustainability and clean energy adoption.
Prime Insights: How do you ensure compliance with regulatory standards, public policies, and governance requirements?
Compliance is foundational to our operating model — both as a professional obligation and as a competitive differentiator in public sector consulting.
We maintain in-house expertise across the key regulatory frameworks governing public infrastructure: MoRT&H/IRC standards for highway DPRs; CPHEEO norms for water and sanitation; CPWD norms for urban infrastructure; GFR provisions for public procurement; and the specific operational policies of multilateral agencies including the World Bank (Procurement Framework, Environmental and Social Standards) and ADB (Safeguard Policy Statement).
Our Parent’s status as a listed entity (Choice International Limited, BSE/NSE) and CCSPL being ISO & CMMI certified consulting organisation imposes additional governance rigour — we operate with the transparency, audit standards, and accountability expected of such wntity.
Prime Insights: Can you share a success story where your expertise significantly improved the outcome of a public infrastructure project?
The PACS Computerisation Programme is perhaps our most transformative engagement. As the national System Integrator across 7 states covering Bihar, Maharashtra , Haryana, Punjab, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. We designed and deployed a unified digital platform serving 13,000+ primary agricultural credit societies. This initiative brought accounting transparency, real-time credit tracking, and member service digitisation to India’s rural cooperative credit infrastructure directly improving farmers’ access to institutional finance.
In public financial management, our accounting reform assignments across 600+ ULBs — supported by World Bank and DFID funding and covering Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Haryana and others — have delivered measurable improvements in municipal financial accountability. Training programmes covering 1 lakh+ hours have built a durable institutional competency base that outlasts individual assignments.
In transport, our Independent Engineering services for 8 hybrid annuity packages in Maharashtra (539.80 km, ₹1,126.67 crore project cost) provided the Government of Maharashtra with rigorous, independent quality assurance on one of its largest road improvement programmes — directly protecting public investment and ensuring contractor accountability.
Prime Insights: How do you address challenges such as budget constraints, project delays, stakeholder coordination, and risk management?
Managing complexity is not incidental to public sector consulting; it is the work itself. Choice has built its operating model around the practical realities of government project delivery.
On budget constraints, we bring financial discipline into every stage of advisory, from scoping assignments to align with available budgets, to identifying alternative financing mechanisms such as grants, VGF, hybrid annuity, and multilateral funding windows that expand what is achievable within fiscal constraints. Our internal cost benchmarking tools help clients set realistic estimates early, reducing the risk of scope cuts or cost overruns mid-project.
On project delays, our approach is preventive rather than reactive. We front-load critical path analysis, identify approval and clearance bottlenecks at the outset, and build realistic implementation schedules with built-in review checkpoints. Where we are embedded as PMUs or project managers, our monitoring tools provide real-time progress tracking, ensuring that slippages are flagged and addressed before they compound.
On stakeholder coordination, we invest in structured engagement frameworks from day one, mapping stakeholders, defining communication protocols, and maintaining clear accountability matrices across government departments, contractors, communities, and funding agencies. We understand that in public sector projects, coordination failure is often a bigger risk than technical failure.
On risk management, we build formal risk registers at project inception, identifying technical, financial, regulatory, social, and environmental risks and assigning clear mitigation responsibilities. These are live documents, reviewed and updated through the project lifecycle rather than filed and forgotten.
Underpinning all of this is a culture of continuous improvement. Each engagement adds to our institutional knowledge, refines our tools, and strengthens our ability to anticipate and navigate the challenges that define public infrastructure delivery in India.
Prime Insights: What strategies do you employ to foster collaboration among government bodies, contractors, investors, and communities?
Effective infrastructure delivery in India is rarely a single-agency effort. It requires sustained, structured collaboration across government tiers, implementation partners, funding institutions, and communities, and Choice has built its engagement model with this reality at its centre.
With government bodies, we operate as a connector across tiers. Many of our assignments require simultaneous engagement with central ministries, state departments, and local bodies, each with distinct mandates, timelines, and institutional cultures. We invest early in understanding these dynamics and design coordination mechanisms, including inter-agency review committees, joint progress forums, and shared reporting dashboards, that keep all stakeholders aligned without creating additional bureaucratic burden.
With contractors and implementation partners, we establish clear performance frameworks, communication protocols, and escalation pathways from the outset. Our role is not adversarial but facilitative, ensuring that implementation partners have the clarity and support they need to deliver, while government clients retain full visibility and accountability.
With investors and funding agencies, we position ourselves as the bridge between government intent and funder confidence. This involves ensuring that programme design, financial structures, and reporting systems meet the standards that multilateral agencies, development finance institutions, and private investors require before committing capital.
With communities, we believe that meaningful participation is not a compliance requirement but a project quality input. Community insights shape better designs, reduce social risks, and build the local ownership that sustains infrastructure beyond project completion. We embed structured community engagement into our field assignments, ensuring that affected populations are informed, consulted, and heard.
Across all these relationships, what we bring is consistency, credibility, and a genuine commitment to outcomes over outputs.
Prime Insights: How do you measure the long-term social, economic, and environmental impact of the projects you support?
Impact measurement at Choice goes beyond counting outputs. We design monitoring frameworks at project inception that track outcomes over time, ensuring that the infrastructure and institutional systems we help build continue to deliver value long after our direct engagement concludes.
On the social side, we track inclusion indicators, service access improvements, and community welfare outcomes, ensuring that benefits reach intended populations, particularly women, marginalised groups, and low-income households. On the economic side, we assess employment generation, productivity gains, and improvements in own-source revenues for government institutions. On the environmental side, we monitor parameters relevant to each sector, whether water quality, energy efficiency, waste reduction, or carbon impact.
We also contribute to post-project evaluations and impact assessments, drawing on the baseline data we establish at the outset to measure change credibly. For multilateral-assisted programmes, this includes compliance with agency-mandated monitoring and reporting requirements.
Ultimately, we see impact measurement not as an accountability exercise but as a learning tool. The data we gather from completed assignments directly informs how we design the next one, making each engagement smarter than the last.
Prime Insights: What are your future goals for expanding your capabilities and contributing to India’s infrastructure growth by 2026 and beyond?
India stands at a defining moment in its development trajectory. With the vision of Viksit Bharat 2047 anchoring long-term national ambition and flagship programmes across urban development, rural infrastructure, industrial infrastructure, digital transformation, clean energy, and agriculture driving near-term investment, the demand for high-quality public sector advisory has never been greater. Choice is deliberately positioning itself to grow with this moment.
Our goals are both expansive and grounded. We aim to deepen our capabilities across every sector we currently serve, bringing greater technical depth, stronger analytical tools, and more experienced teams to each engagement. At the same time, we are actively expanding into new geographies and programme ecosystems, building relationships with state governments, central agencies, and multilateral institutions where our presence is still nascent.
We are investing in our people and our technology. A stronger in-house talent base, a continuously evolving suite of proprietary project management and monitoring tools, and a culture of knowledge sharing across practice areas will ensure that Choice remains at the frontier of public sector consulting rather than merely keeping pace with it.
Beyond organisational growth, our ambition is defined by contribution. We want to be the firm that helped a district’s cooperative network go digital, that brought financial accountability to a hundred municipalities, that prepared the DPR that unlocked a critical corridor, that built the PMU that made a programme work. These are the outcomes that define meaningful participation in India’s nation-building effort.
Choice’s future is inseparable from India’s future. As the country grows, urbanises, connects, and transforms, we intend to be a trusted, capable, and values-driven partner at every step of that journey.
Prime Insights: What advice would you give to policymakers and infrastructure stakeholders seeking to maximize the impact of nation-building projects?
India’s policymakers and infrastructure stakeholders are navigating one of the most ambitious development agendas in the world, and the progress made over the past decade across roads, water, housing, industrial infrastructure, digital infrastructure, and rural connectivity is a genuine testament to their vision and commitment. Our observations from working alongside these institutions are offered in that spirit.
The projects that deliver the greatest impact are almost always the ones where preparation received as much attention as execution. Investing in rigorous feasibility studies, well-structured DPRs, and thorough stakeholder consultations before breaking ground pays dividends many times over in smoother implementation, fewer disputes, and better outcomes for communities.
Institutional capacity is infrastructure too. The best-designed project will underperform if the institution managing it lacks the resources, systems, and expertise to see it through. Dedicated project management units, trained financial management teams, and robust monitoring systems are not administrative luxuries; they are essential enablers of project success.
Collaboration across departments, tiers of government, and sectors unlocks possibilities that siloed approaches cannot. Some of India’s most impactful programmes have succeeded precisely because they brought together finance, technical, and administrative functions around a shared outcome, rather than managing them as parallel workstreams.
Finally, feedback and learning deserve a permanent place in programme design. Every completed project carries lessons that can make the next one better. Institutionalising post-project reviews, impact assessments, and knowledge sharing across agencies is one of the highest-value investments any government can make.
India has the vision, the resources, and the institutional energy to achieve its infrastructure ambitions. With the right advisory partnerships and a commitment to continuous improvement, the potential is extraordinary.
