Smart Cities

Even as the six, tier II cities in Karnataka are on the cusp of receiving the Centre’s assured funding of Rs 1,000 crore each under the smart city project, Bengaluru and its two heritage cities Mysuru and Kalaburgi still await the state government’s nod for the “diluted” version of the scheme.Having embarrassed itself by proposing the names of Bengaluru, Mysuru and Kalaburgi for the smart city project, which were rejected by the Centre eventually, the government had tried its luck at redemption by floating a separate development scheme only for...

The city of Jaipur will soon boast of its own, state set-up, innovation lab. Set up by the Jaipur Development Authority (JDA), the innovation lab will focus on smart city solutions in collaboration with tech players and startups and will be operational before the new year sets in, Shikhar Agrawal, Joint Development Commissioner of JDA told us. The space and technology infrastructure for the innovation lab will be provided by the JDA, which will invite startups and other companies to come and collaborate for locally relevant solutions. “Innovation labs will...

BJP and Congress corporators recently traded barbs during a special session of Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC), which was convened to share suggestions for the Smart city project.A wordy duel ensued when opposition leader in IMC, Fouzia Sheikh Aalim accused BJP of draining coffers and telling lies to residents of Indore. “Crores of rupees have been spent on organising such events at 5-star hotels. Such sessions can be organised at the IMC office,” Aalim said. It will take only one visit to Indore by any central government official to reject city’s...

François Richier, Ambassador of France to India, along with SPS Bakshi, CMD, Engineering Projects India Ltd (EPI) are currently visiting Nagpur. Richier arrived in Nagpur on Dec 16th and was greeted by Maharashtra CM. On visit to Nagpur, meeting with Deputy Mayor, Commissioner Hardikar and stakeholders from the Smart Cities mission was held. Richier led a 14-member delegation, including heads of top French companies active in the smart cities and urban development sectors, who represented their expertise in their respective areas.  The participating companies include Alstom Transport, Dassault Systèmes, Egis, Lumiplan, RATP...

Noting that the government alone cannot keep the cities clean and liveable, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje recently urged the public as well as Mayors, representatives of the local municipal bodies to work together to improve environment.Raje, while addressing the inaugural session of the ‘Municipalika 2015’ stated that the state government is working in line with the Union Government’s series of programmes at urban reconstruction, consolidation and reforms. “Rajasthan is earnestly working for the initiatives of the centre such as Swach Bharat Mission, Smart Cities, Atal Mission of Rejuvenation and...

Financial model of an estimated Rs 8,000 crore, Bhopal’s smart city proposal is being worked out in consultation with state government, ahead of submission deadline of December 15.Top officials of state government’s urban administration and development department (UADD) and consultants from UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) are reviewing proposals from seven cities of Madhya Pradesh, participating in Union government’s smart cities challenge, an official said. Twenty cities would be selected for the mission in first year and winners are likely to be declared in January 2016. Sources said Bhopal...

Kudos to all Bhubaneswar lovers, it has topped in social media platform Facebook, with the capital of Odisha getting maximum ‘likes’ in its smart city campaign page recently.The Bhubaneswar – Smart City page in Facebook is the official page of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC); it is an interactive platform for the citizen’s involvement in the exciting journey to prepare the Smart City road map. “We were number 1 in citizen connect initiative last week. We will organise a number of other events to get more ‘likes’ including Smart City...

Boosting the government’s ambitious ‘Digital India’ drive, social media giant Facebook has come forward to facilitate state-run BSNL in setting up 100 Wi-Fi sites in rural areas of western and southern India.Facebook will spend Rs 5 crore per annum for sponsoring these 100 Wi-Fi hotspots in the country.”Facebook has partnered with us to sponsor 100 Wi-Fi hotspots in villages across west and southern India. They will pay Rs 5 lakh for BSNL bandwidth for each hotspot per annum,” BSNL chairman & MD, Anupam Shrivastava said.The hotspots are being set up...

Around 1,960 submissions have been made by city residents at the online portal ‘mygov.in’ under the Smart City Project. Most of the submission have focused on environment, traffic management and parking, public safety, and wifi and internet connectivity in public places.November 1 was the last date for residents to submit their suggestions at the online portal. MC additional commissioner Ghanshyam Thori said that after November 1, residents can post their suggestions on the Facebook page created by the MC. Also, they can give their suggestions by filling the questionnaires which...

The civic administration has invited citizens and their representatives to present their views about how a smart city should be during a day-long seminar at Kalidas Kala Mandir on Friday.A senior official from the Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) said taking into consideration the involvement of citizens in the Smart Cities Mission, municipal commissioner Praveen Gedam had called upon all stake holders to present their views on the smart city concept. “A discussion will be held with the elected representatives at 11am and this will be followed by various institutions and...