Smart Cities project: France commits 2 billion euros

France has committed an investment of over 2 billion euros for 'Smart Cities' project in India with focus on Chandigarh, Nagpur and Puducherry, French Ambassador Francois Richier said today.

Richier said there is also an investment of another 200 million euros for the extension of Bangalore metro.

He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had visited France in April and France had committed 600 million euros for 'Smart Cities' and projects related to sustainability, including in renewable energy and energy efficiency.

He was speaking at a seminar organised by Ficci here

Besides developing smart cities, France was keen to develop heritage sites and tourism for the smart cities, Richier said, a Ficci release quoted him as saying.

Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Urban Development Durga Shanker Mishra read out a message from Venkaiah Naidu, Minister of Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, and Parliamentary Affairs.

"With France already pledging financial support in developing three cities in the country, the Indian government was looking towards more such partnerships with France," Naidu said in his message.

The Minister noted that providing clean drinking water, sewerage, building urban transport and infrastructure in the smart cities were some of the areas that had ample scope for partnerships.

Mishra said that France was actively partnering with India in its initiatives of developing 100 Smart Cities and AMRUT. The government was moving ahead on both the projects by engaging with the state governments and local bodies as their involvement would give an impetus to the projects, he said.