New Delhi: The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) in coordination with Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Ltd (IPSCDL) has organised a CEOs conference of 100 Smart Cities.
The conference has witnessed the participation of Chief Executive Officers/Municipal Commissioners of 100 Smart Cities along with officials from the Central, State governments, Industry and knowledge partners.
Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant inaugurated the Smart Cities CEOs Conference on Data and Technology on Monday in Panaji.
Kunal Kumar, Mission Director, Smart Cities Mission, said that the time has come for innovative, out of the box thinking. He stated that it was time for CEOs to take control and decide the destinations of their projects, rather than being driven to it.
Talking about projects in Panaji, Mamu Hage, CEO, IPSCDL in her address said that various projects like the Integrated Command and Control Centre, Electric Buses, Mandovi Promenade, taken up under the Smart City Mission have great scope for revenue generation. She stated that monetizing these projects can bring in additional revenue for the city.
The conference also saw discussions on the ‘Smart Procure’ guidelines for procurement of innovation, where officials from the Smart Cities of Shimla, Bhopal and Ahmedabad shared their success stories. MoHUA is expected to announce the ICCC Awards to reward the most innovative and outstanding efforts of cities in creating maximum impact through their ICCCs during the closing ceremony.
The Smart Cities Mission was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 25th June, 2015. It has been a part of an agenda for urban rejuvenation and has been designed as part of a multi-layer strategy to meet the aspirations of 40% of India’s population living in cities.
Officials said that SCM is a transformational Mission aimed to bring about a paradigm shift in the practice of urban development in the country. As on 19 January 2023, work orders were issued in 7,799 projects worth around Rs 181,268 crore, of which 5,229 projects worth Rs 98,291 crore have been completed.
–IANS