US, India to turn these 3 cities smart

New Delhi, Jan 28: Obama's diplomatic visit to India nailed the countries bilateral relationship in numerous ways. Strategic partnership in eradicating terrorism, nuke policy and development plans of India were the main agenda of the meetings, but what we did not know was that both the countries had selected Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh and Ajmer in Rajasthan to be turned into smart cities.

The discussion for the same held between Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu and US Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, who was also a part of Obama's US delegation. An official statement declared that the two ministers decided to form a task force for each of the three cities to formulate concrete action plans in the next three months.

Each team is likely to have three representatives each from the central and respective state governments and the US Trade and Development Agency or USTDA. Each of the task forces will be discussing specific features and requirements to turn them into smart cities.

Pritzker said that she had met Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia and was impressed by their go-get attitude.

She further added,"This meeting was in pursuance of the directive of President Barack Obama to work on the economic dimension of strategic and commercial dialogue between Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi and President Obama and the decisions taken."

Naidu spoke of Obama's visit to India and appreciated the signing of Memoranda of Understanding on smart city cooperation and said that the countries should now be quick in their implementation of the plan.

OneIndia News