Venkaiah Naidu reviews feedback from states on building smart cities

Minister of Urban Development and Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Venkaiah Naidu, on Saturday reviewed the suggestions, views and feedback from states and Union Territories on building smart cities.

Unanimously welcoming the Smart Cities initiative of the Central Government, the states made ten broad suggestions including seeking flexibility in implementation, capacity building, technical assistance in preparation of project reports, higher financial assistance etc.

Naidu directed the officials to examine in detail the suggestions of states and prepare a proposal for discussion at an inter-ministerial meeting to be held. Ministers of Finance and Defence, Highways and Surface Transport, Railways, Power, Environment and Forests are proposed to be invited for this meeting.

Reiterating the importance of smart leadership in developing smart cities, Naidu said that he would write to all the Chief Ministers on the need for proper decision making to enhance revenues of urban local bodies and improving urban governance.

The following suggestions were received from the states in respect of implementation of Smart Cities project: flexibility in implementation; incentivising performance; capacity building for technology adoption; higher central assistance in view of the resource constraints of urban local bodies; expeditious clearances by the Government of India; higher level of Viability Gap Funding in respect of solid waste management and water supply projects; capital expenditure to be borne by Central Government since private operators can only manage the operations and maintenance with utility charges; special purpose vehicles to be created for executing the projects; Centre to bear the cost of preparation of feasibility and project reports; Centre to guide in respect of cutting edge technologies since the same is not in the domain of states/UTs.