Urban challenges call for efficient project management: Puri

Stating that urban areas in India face multi-pronged challenges, Union Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday said it requires efficient project management to solve the problems.

Speaking at the inaugural session of "Project Managers Global Summit 2018" here, the Minister said: "In democracy you can't tell people where to live, nor can we stop migration.

"We have to tackle it by creating infrastructure and look at urbanisation as a great opportunity for economic growth."

Puri said an efficient project management means translating vision into reality -- by challenging the multi-pronged problems of ensuring housing for all in a complex ecosystem, technology-based solutions and smart governance.

According to government data, over 30 per cent of India's population lives in urban centres as compared to 17 per cent of the population living in urban areas at the time of India's Independence in 1947.

"100 cities are now implementing concepts such as smart roads, smart solid waste management, solar rooftops and smart schools," the Minister said.

Puri pointed out that every Smart City will have a Smart City Centre (SCC), or Integrated Command and Control Centre.

The SCC functions as a city's nervous system where digital technologies are integrated with social, physical and environmental aspects of the city, to enable centralised monitoring and decision making.

SCCs have already been set up in 11 cities, while 28 other cities have started work on setting up such centres, he added.

--IANS

sm/nir