PM chairs meeting on smart cities

Prime Minister Narendra Modi Monday chaired a high-level meeting on the Smart City Initiative and called for identifying parameters for these cities.

A PMO release said that the prime minister has asked the ministry of urban development to convene a workshop of all central and state urban development authorities at the earliest.

He said one of the aims of the Smart City Initiative should be to improve the quality of urban governance, thereby lending greater strength to the overall governance processes of the country.

Modi said the workshop should also focus on reforms in laws related to urban development.

"The prime minister called for identifying parameters that could be laid down for smart cities. He asked officials to identify the basics of infrastructure, quality of life, and citizen-centric services that would be essential to cities of the 21st century," the release said.

Modi said that cities should be identified as hubs of economic activity.

He said that focus on "waste to wealth" - i.e. solid-waste management, and waste-water treatment - would be an important part of the development of smart cities.

Modi asked government officials to visualise "urban-dependent" population, in addition to "urban" population, while planning for smart cities.

Officials from the Prime Minister's Office, the ministry of urban development and the ministry of information technology, were present on the occasion.

The meeting was a part of series of consultations on smart cities.