Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) along with (UKTI) organised an interaction with Vivek Agrawal, Commissioner in Urban Development and Environment on development of Bhopal as a Smart City.
“We are committed to make Bhopal a smart city, and an investment of about `15, 000 crore will be done in the city through PPP model. Development of new model areas and retrofitting of the older areas with smart amenities like, metered water supply system, solid waste management, remote grid control will be some of the steps in this direction”, said Agrawal.
The interaction was organised with the help of UK Trade and Investment desk of British Deputy High Commission, Mumbai, a delegation of UK based organisations engaged in providing smart city solutions also participated. The overall objective of interaction is to increase business between the two countries across a range of sectors, such as energy, healthcare, advanced manufacturing, financial services and infrastructure.
Kumar Iyer, Director General of UKTI India said: ‘‘As India embarks on its ambition to build 100 smart cities; the UK is very excited to be a key partner. Our Prime Ministers have launched GREAT for Collaboration, an ambitious campaign that showcases UK's commitment to India and inspires new business partnerships between the two countries.
Smart cities are a strong pillar of this where we are the official country partners in Indore, Pune and Amravathi but the UKTI are looking to support India nationally as well. Smart transport, water and waste management, raising finance, design, healthcare and e-governance are just some of the areas where the UK is world class and where those companies are looking towards India. But our offer goes beyond these cities and any one sector.