Plans for a 20km cycle path in the Govan area have moved forward as the council agreed to spend nearly £800,000 on consultants for the route.

The new cycle tracks will cover Govan and the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital and provide a path into the city centre on Paisley Road West. It will also join up to the Govan to Partick bridge currently being built.

Today city councillors approved a £798,569 contract with firm Jacobs to carry out consultancy services for the ‘Govan City Network.’ It also includes work on the liveable neighbourhood project of Cessnock Village Strip.

The contract work will involve ‘developing design and technical design stages’ according to a paper presented to Glasgow City Council’s contracts and property committee.

The project is one of a number being rolled across the city to encourage walking, wheeling and cycling.

An official told the committee: “The Greater Govan Cycling Network is one of the first projects to be taken forward to the preliminary design and developing design and technical design stages.”

The contract is to run for 18 months. Companies submitted bids for the contract and officials looked at price and quality with Jacobs getting an evaluation score of 93 per cent.

A council report said: “The tender has resulted in a cost avoidance saving of £1,051,430.49.”

Govan councillor Dan Hutchison welcomed work on the new active travel routes and asked for more information on how more than £1 million was saved through cost avoidance.

An official said some information is commercially sensitive but Jacobs have been successful with previous similar contracts and that has given them background on on works and designs that would be used.

It is understood the funding originates from the active travel infrastructure programme Places for Everyone – from the Scottish Government, which is administered by Sustrans.