Calling for improved infrastructure of Government schools in Ajmer-one of the four cities selected under the Smart Cities Mission-Vasudev Devnani, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Primary and Secondary Education, Government of Rajasthan, also suggested the Municipal Corporation of Ajmer to install solar rooftops on Government schools. He was speaking after inaugurating the Smart City Summit, Ajmer, organised by the Department of Local Self Government, Government of Rajasthan, in association with Elets Technomedia Private Limited-a media and technology research company.
The first day of the two days summit also saw international participation from agencies like United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) and High Commission of Malaysia.
To present the global perspective on Smart Cities, Mehnaz Ansari, Country Representative-South Asia, USTDA and Muhammad Afzar Bin Abdullah, First Secretary, High Commission of Malaysia, were present in the inaugural.
Mahendra Kumar Jain, Additional Chief Secretary, Urban Development Department, Government of Karnataka presented his vision of urban development in Karnataka.
From Ajmer administration Himanshu Gupta, Commissioner, Ajmer Municipal Corporation and Additional CEO, Ajmer Smart City Ltd (ASCL) ; Gaurav Goyal, Collector & District Magistrate, Ajmer, Commissioner – Ajmer Development Authority & CEO, AJCL; Hanuman Sahay Meena, Divisional Commissioner, Ajmer Division presented the developmental works of Ajmer.
Shiv Shanker Heda,Minister of State & Chairman, Ajmer Development Authority and Dr Raghu Sharma, Member of Parliament, Ajmer also talked in length about the progress of various Smart Cities projects in Ajmer.
Heda commented that “Smart Cities Mission is indeed an innovative concept, but the administration will have to implement the projects to the tee.” He also suggested that in addition to ABD area, the development of the entire city must be on the cards.
Dr Sonali Sinha, COO, Tourism and Hospitality Skill Council (THSC) gave a special presentation on the importance of skill development for building Smart Cities. Santhosh Muzumdar, Head of Business Development and Government Affairs, Johnson Controls; S V R Srinivas, Principal Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Government of Maharashtra; Ashutosh AT Pednekar, Special Secretary, Department of Higher Education & Commissioner, College Education,Government of Rajasthan, Malini Agarwal, Inspector General of Police, Ajmer; K Mohammed Y Safirulla, Collector and District Magistrate, Ernakulam, Government of Kerala; Sidharth Sihag, Commissioner, Udaipur Municipal Corporation & CEO, Udaipur Smart City Ltd; P S Mohammad Sagir, Project Director, Kerala State Urban Development Programme; Rajendra Jagtap, CEO, Pune Smart City Ltd; Rajendra Singh, Superintendent of Police, Ajmer; Akhilesh Mittal, Join Director, IT & Communications, Rajasthan Public Service Commision; Amit Sharma, Region Director, Survey and Land Records, Government of Jammu and Kashmir; Kishore Kumar, Deputy Director, Local Bodies Department, Government of Rajasthan; Hemant Swarup Mathur, Deputy Commissioner, Ajmer Development Authority Jyoti Kakwani, Deputy Commissioner, Ajmer Municipal Corporation; Alok Kumar Joshi, Executive Director ( Projects), HUDCO; Dharam Pal Singh, District Town Planner, Karnal Municipal Corporation; Manish Kumar Gupta, Additional DRM, North Western Railways; M L Chaudhary, Additional CEO, Jaipur Development Authority; P C Tiwari, Energy Manager, AVVNL,offered insight into various Smart Cities components in the summit.
Ajmer, the Rajasthan’s city famous for its Sufi shrine — Ajmer Sharif Dargah, is set for a major overhaul. It is being evolved as a Smart City, as part of the Government of India’s roadmap for developing futuristic cities to highlight the country on a world map. Nestled in Aravalli Mountains, Ajmer also holds significance for serving as the base to visit the ancient city of Pushkar, known for the temple of Lord Brahma. This has also popularised it as a tourist spot. Also, Ajmer has been selected as one of the heritage cities for the Central Government scheme of HRIDAY (Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana). In this light, efforts are on to steadily introduce digitisation in the city’s administrative system. It is hoped to ensure a makeover as part of realising the Smart City dream.
This was the 29th Smart City Summit organised by Elets, which has a vision of organising 100 such Smart City conferences across the country.
