Two of the Smart cities for country’s capital

September 12, 2014

Delhi could get two of the smart cities — a brand new one in the city’s outskirts to be developed by the Delhi Development Authority and a second in New Delhi Municipal Council area.

This has been proposed in the first blueprint of Modi government’s ambitious project to develop 100 smart cities across India. Drafted by the urban development (UD) ministry, the concept note proposes to include 44 cities with a population between 1 to 4 million under the scheme.

As first reported by HT on August 27, the UD ministry’s concept note has estimated an annual investment of Rs. 35,000 crore for developing the 100 smart cities.

However, the note stops short of elaborating on how the funds would be generated. The note, which was put online for public discussion, has knocked off parts from an earlier draft which proposed a host of measures for raising funds from the public.

It says that a large part of the financing for smart cities will have to come from private sector and mentions broadly mentions imposing of user charges for utilities and a betterment levy for “enhancing the resource pool” without specifying how much fund would be generated from these measures.

Some of the basic criteria proposed for selecting cities includes cities which have an approved Master Plan, which can commit to provide free right of way for laying optic fibre networks among others.

The note says that a smart city would have facilities ranging from uninterrupted power and water supply, online delivery of all public services, and an effective public transport system among others.

Source:Hindustan Times