A 30-member Australian smart infrastructure team visited Bhopal on Thursday to explore opportunities of participating in the smart cities projects in Madhya Pradesh.
In a session organised by the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade), Australian Government in collaboration with the Government of Madhya Pradesh, the delegations were provided an overview by senior Madhya Pradesh Government officials on the current and upcoming projects in Madhya Pradesh in smart cities, water, renewable energy and transportation; multilateral funded opportunities in Madhya Pradesh and on current progress of Bhopal and Indore smart cities development programme.
Speaking on the occasion, Grayson Perry, Trade Commissioner, Australian Trade and Investment Commission, Australian Government said, “Australia has significant experience retrofitting smart infrastructure solutions to ageing infrastructure and developing integrated multi-use green-field projects. Australian companies are ideally placed to deliver integrated, well-managed and sustainable urban, commercial and industrial environments that can be applied to Madhya Pradesh’s smart cities mission program and broader infrastructure programmes.”
Key participants from the Government of Madhya Pradesh included Malay Shrivastava, Principal Secretary, Urban Development and Environment Department, Vivek Agarwal, Commissioner and Secretary, Department of Urban Development, Managing Director, Metro Rail and Secretary to the Chief Minister, Chhavi Bhardwaj, Commissioner, Bhopal Municipal Corporation, Mohit Bundas, Additional Commissioner, Department of Urban Development, Chandramauli Shukla, CEO, Bhopal Smart City Development Corporation and Rohan Saxena, CEO, Indore Smart City Project and Deputy Commissioner, Indore Municipal Corporation.
Under the Government of India’s Smart Cities Mission, seven cities have been allocated to the state of Madhya Pradesh. Bhopal, Indore, Jabalpur, Ujjain and Gwalior were selected in the first two rounds, and Sagar and Satna were shortlisted in June 2017 to be developed as smart cities. The Madhya Pradesh government has planned an investment of A$4 billion across the seven smart cities by leveraging seed funding of A$1.4 billion from the central and state governments.