With the release of 98 shortlisted cities to be developed under the recently announced Smart City Mission (SCM) by the Ministry of Urban Development, we have now entered into the next phase of this crucial urban initiative. The focus has now shifted to the ‘Smart City Challenge Proposal’ that all these cities are preparing with their respective empaneled consultant, that needs to be submitted by Mid-December, 2015.
Subsequent to the launch of the Smart City Mission, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) had constituted a National Mission on Smart Cities which aims to provide policy advocacy and thought leadership for Smart City initiatives to Government and other stakeholders. It also aims to bring in global experiences and solutions, including fresh approaches to procurement of service providers. To support this cause, CII has signed MoUs with five Country Consortiums, namely – German, US, Spanish, Indian and Japanese.
The CII network of offices spread across the Regions and States, especially in the shortlisted cities, are being actively engaged by the respective Governments and City Administrations to assist in the on-going Smart City Mission and also to suggest “Smart” urban technical solutions. To this extent, CII has already signed independent MoUs with State Governments of Andhra Pradesh, Goa & West Bengal and Cities of Pune & Chandigarh.
Taking into consideration the huge demand at the State and City levels generated by this ambitious Government Program, CII proposes to have a series of State Level Round Tables & Technology Expositions on Smart Cities across the country. (Please refer the attached schedule of these sessions and consider being industry partner for the same).
These Round Table sessions aim to provide specific technical and financial inputs pertaining to urban problems being faced in the identified Cities. These sessions would also aim to listen to the perspectives of the State Governments and representatives from Urban Local Bodies, suggest possible solutions to them and convey the feedback to the Union Ministry. Besides, the Technology Expositions would provide an opportunity for numerous firms across urban infrastructure landscapes to showcase their offerings in all the identified States and Union Territories. This becomes relevant as by end November, most of the States would have almost finished their citizen consultations and would be in the process of finalising the preferred projects / solutions across the urban amenities, which will form part of the Smart City Project.
CII believes that your contribution and participation at these proposed Roundtables and Expositions would go a long way in generating awareness at the city level and strengthening the entire implementation framework of National Smart City Mission.
