A two-day conference on smart cities was inaugurated by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in Nagpur, where he deliberated on various issues including the government’s approach, smart city mission and its benefits, and the initiatives being undertaken to bring ease in common man’s life.
“Basic objective of smart city mission is accessibility and affordability and better quality of life. This project will also create many jobs,” he said at the “Elets Smart City Summit-Nagpur”, organised by the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) in association with Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd on 7th and 8th April.
Also present on the occasion was Union Minister for Road, Transport and Highways, and Shipping Nitin Gadkari who spoke about various smart city components. “The 24/7 water supply project in Nagpur focused on auditing tanks and pipelines for leakages and other problems due to which water was lost.
To address the issue of leakages we constructed cement concrete tanks, laid new pipelines and computerised system to monitor water level,” said Gadkari at the summit.
“We have also decided to make policy for getting ethanol from rural, agriculture and forest sector, which will create employment opportunities for tribals.” Also present at the summit were NMC Commissioner Shravan Hardikar , Mayor Nanda Jichkar, Maharashtra government officials, central government officials, officials from other state and dignitaries from countries like Sweden, France, and Spain.
“We will require equality with sustainability and digital empowerment can bring this change in the country. Maharashtra government is trying to provide a digital platform for information that is already available with the Government departments,” said Vijay Kumar Gautam, Principal Secretary, Information Technology Department of Maharashtra Government.
Similarly, various smart cities experts from foreign countries apprised the participants about their projects they are involved in.
“It is necessary to see what we are creating in the Smart City, whether it will be useful for citizens and last person of the society or not. The services are for making life easier and comfortable and not creating obstacles,” said Antony Vives Thomas, former Barcelona Deputy Mayor.
The summit hosted several panel discussions on the Government of India’s ambitious programmes such as Swachh Bharat, Aadhaar-linked transactions, Intelligent Transport Management System (ITMS), Internet of Things as the facilitator for overall smart infrastructure, among others.
There was a large expo area which showcased products of various companies dealing with the Smart Cities.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Ravi Gupta, CEO of Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd, his company has plans to organise Nagpur-like conferences in 100 smart cities in future.
