New Delhi: The Central government said that framework for government's stated goal of developing 100 smart cities will soon be finalised and the plan would allow plenty of opportunity for participation to the private sector.
“We are in the process of finalising the framework for smart cities. It is a huge exercise and all possible pitfalls, effects and other factors are being considered before announcement of the policy," Urban Development (UD) Secretary Shankar Aggarwal said at a real estate conference here organised by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Wednesday.
"There will be many opportunities for the private sector in the proposed smart city project," he added.
Builders and developers for the smart cities would be adequately incentivised, the senior official said, adding that while two or three new cities would come up as smart cities, primarily existing cities would be taken up for the smart city project.
Aggarwal said the major component of the project will be the provision of smart infrastructure - roads, pedestrian pathways, public toilets, water and sewer networks, street lighting, signal systems, gas supply, solid waste management systems, drainage network and safety and security devices.
"The Prime Minister has already asked the Urban Development Ministry to look into all old laws. We are going to cut down on those. We have to make it citizen-centric rather than regulatory-centric," the Ministry's topmost official said.
He said there will be a lot of job opportunities during the implementation of the smart city plan and added that, ‘all the proposed 100 smart cities will be developed simultaneously'.
“Existing cities will be developed as smart cities. There may be two or three new cities which come up as smart cities but, primarily, it will be existing cities which will be taken up for the smart city project,” Aggarwal said.
Asked whether there will be a nodal agency for executing the smart city project, the UD secretary said, “May be there will be a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to execute it. But that has not been finalised yet.”
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