Ghaziabad civic body gears up to make 'Smart City' list

Ghaziabad, May 26: The Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation on Thursday, May 26 signed Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) with 10 companies to help the city realise the dream of making into the next "Smart City" list.

According to the MoU, the companies will share with the municipal corporation ideas and solutions how to make Ghaziabad smart and tech-savvy across the spectrum -- education, infrastructure, hospitality, transportation and healthcare.

"As Modi government completes two years, we are happy to organise this workshop as '100 Smart Cities' project is our prime minister's flagship project," said Ghaziabad Mayor Ashu Kumar Verma.

"We are set to send a new proposal to make Ghaziabad a 'Smart City' and expect to be included in the next 'Smart City' list," he added.

The revised proposal is to be submitted to the ministry of urban development by June 25.

The companies that participated in the "Industry knowledge-sharing workshop" were IBM, United Technologies Corporation, Delta Power Solution, Pravam Pte Ltd, Emerson, ACME, 3M India Limited, Sanrachna, Yes Bank and Spice Digital.

The Urban Development Ministry this week announced 13 winners of the fast-track Smart City competition, with Lucknow topping the list. These cities can now compete to be a "Smart City" in the next cycle of "India Smart Cities Challenge".

Union Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu said Lucknow, which could not make it to the first list of 20 mission cities last year, had improved the quality of its Smart City plan. Twenty-three cities participated in the fast-track competition.

The minister said these 13 cities were selected on the basis of marks scored by them in the fast-track competition and the benchmarks set by the top performers in the first cycle of the challenge.

IANS