Dehradun Mayor Vinod Chamoli exhorted the people of the city to pursue their commitment towards developing Dehradun into a smarty city. The Mayor said this while addressing the media at a workshop held on the smart city project here on Tuesday.
He said, “It is your city and you have a commitment to make it smart. It is a city of pride for all of us in Uttarakhand,” said the Dehradun mayor. Referring to the media as mirror for society, Chamoli acknowledged the critical role played by journalists in aspects like the process of drafting the Dehradun smart city proposal.
It is pertinent to mention here that Dehradun is among 23 cities that have been asked by Ministry of Urban Development to resubmit their respective Smart City proposals till April 15 and the authorities in Dehradun are reportedly working relentlessly to ensure it gets into the final list this time.
The Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority (MDDA) vice chairman and smart city nodal officer for Uttarakhand, R Meenakshi Sundaram also spoke on the occasion replying to various queries and doubts expressed by members of the gathering.
The Dehradun district magistrate Ravinath Raman and Dehradun municipal commissioner Nitin Singh Bhadauria were also amon those who spoke on the varied issues raised at the workshop.
It is pertinent to mention here that in the run up to the final submission of the Smart City proposal, the MDDA has been conducing a series of expert consultations for various aspects including the areas of financing, technology and media.
Apart from the media workshop organised on Tuesday, a consultation meet with finance experts was also held on the same day to discuss and ideate sustainable and innovative financial mechanisms for Dehradun. This workshop was conducted by FICCI, which is assisting MDDA in generating fresh ideas and solutions for financing and executing crucial urban infrastructure projects by bringing in the experts from both Industry and Government.
“These consultations are critical and give us high-quality inputs on a variety of subjects. I must also acknowledge the positive support we have received from all stakeholders in this project. We shall soon be submitting the final proposal and are certain that our efforts will yield better results this time,” added the MDDA vice chairman.
Earlier FICCI had also conducted a technology workshop to assist MDDA to identify innovative technological solutions available that can be implemented to address the urban challenges. The various persons who participated in these deliberations included State Finance secretary in-charge Amit Singh Negi, (PwC India) Smart Cities director NSN Murthy, former principal secretary Vibha Puri Das, Dr. Emandi Sankara Rao, IIFCl; Shalini A Sharma, IDBI; Shobhit Agrawal, Il&FS Urban Infrastructure Managers limited; Vertika Tewari, Kotak Mahindra Bank ltd and others.