Chandigarh to be India’s first smart city?

According to the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Chandigarh could emerge as the first smart city in the country. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream project of making 100 such smart cities in the country would become a reality very soon.

The Finance Minister said that many foreign countries including Japan, Germany, Sweden, Singapore, Israel, UK, US, Hong Kong and the Netherlands along with many corporate have have shown interest in building smart hi-tech cities in India.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. Photo: PTI

“The first Indian smart city to be created could probably be Chandigarh. There are satellite cities around Chandigarh that are being created,” Jaitley said at a Vibrant Gujarat Summit in Gandhinagar.

“Noida and Greater Noida on the outskirts of Delhi and New Raipur in Chhattisgarh are recent experiments and good experiments we have made. Foreign capital is available to them (since) we have opened up the sector,” he said.

The self-sustainable, smart cities will have uninterrupted power, water, proper sanitation, efficient management of solid waste, decongestion of roads, last mile connectivity and effective use of information and communications technology (ICT). It will have enough green spaces, planned residential and commercial areas with well connected roads and communications.

(With input from PTI)

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