Several countries eager to participate in smart city project

Several countries, which include Spain, Canada, Germany and the UK, have shown keen interest to participate in the Union government???s flagship Smart City project. Minister of State for Urban Development, Rao Inderjit Singh said China, Singapore and South Korea have also shown their interest to participate.

He informed that presently two foreign agencies ??? U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) and French Agency for Development (AFD) ??? have inked MoUs with states and union territories for participation in the development of various smart cities. USTDA has signed MoUs with Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan to develop Visakhapatnam, Allahabad and Ajmer as smart cities respectively.

While, AFD has signed MoUs with Maharashtra, Chandigarh and Puducherry for the development of Nagpur, Chandigarh and Oulgaret, Singh said. The government has earmarked Rs 48,000 crore for the development of 100 smart cities across the country. Under the programme, each selected city would receive Rs 500 crore over a period of five years from the Centre with the respective states expected to make the matching contribution.

Source : Urbannewsdigest