Experts from across the world like Anthony Williams, former Mayor of Washington and Stephen Yarwood, former lord Mayor of Adelaide, Australia will participate in a unique two-day “Ideas Camp” from Tuesday in the national capital to help the municipal heads of selected Smart Cities in preparing the Smart City plan.
The camp aims to enable effective participation of the 98 cities included in the Smart City Mission in the second stage of City Challenge competition, he added. To be organised by the Union Urban Development Ministry, the workshop will also be attended by Principal Secretaries of Urban Development Department from States and Union Territories.
Williams and a fellow at Harvard and director of urban projects in Columbia, Alijandro Echeverri, chief architect of Barcelona smart city, Vincente Gullarte and executive director (cities) and london School of Economics, Phillip Rode are among others who will participate in the event.
“The Ideas Camp is being organized at a time when the cities included in the Smart City Mission are set to begin preparation of city wise Smart City Plans which will be evaluated in the second stage of City Challenge competition based on a broad set of criteria for identifying the top ranking first 20 cities for financing during the current financial year.
“Others will be required to address the deficiencies identified before participating in the subsequent 2nd and 3rd rounds of competition wherein 40 cities will be selected for financing each year,” said a senior official from the UD Ministry.
The camp is being organised by Bloomberg Philanthropies, which is the knowledge partner of the Ministry for the Smart City Mission.