If Ecorys Nederland BV of the Netherlands will prepare Smart City Plan for Bhagalpur in Bihar, it will be Tractebel Engineering SA of Belgium, which will share its expertise with local administration to prepare plan for Dharmashala in Himachal Pradesh, Haskoning DHV Consulting of the Netherlands with the little known Dahod in Gujarat.
Similarly, Mott MacDonald of the United Kingdom has been selected as consultant for Jaipur, Deloitte Touche Tohmastsu of Japan for Bidhannagar in West Bengal, Data World of South Africa with remote Namchi in Sikkim, to name a few.
Clearly, global companies from across developed countries like Canada, France, USA, Spain and Japan are showing keen interest in India's Smart City mission with many of them being selected as consultants for preparation of smart city plans for 42 mission cities.
This was stated by Union Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu at an event organised by FICCI in the national capital on Thursday. He shared that 88 Mission Cities have chosen consultants to assist them in preparation for their smart city plans.
Naidu said the mission has generated much interest abroad and companies from 14 countries including US, Canada, United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Norway, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Africa and Abu Dhabi have been selected for preparation of city level Smart City Plans for 42 of the Mission cities.
This speaks for the global interest in our Smart City Mission, he said.
Naidu said that it is for the first time in our country, the cities are being selected based on competition under an urban development mission. He said the Prime Minister wants these capable cities to act as light houses for others to follow in due course for ensuring good quality of urban life.
Naidu said that his ministry has given time till December 15 this year to urban local bodies to submit their city level Smart City Plans which will then be evaluated in the second stage of City Challenge Competition for picking up the first batch of 20 cities based on rankings for financing during this financial year.