France, through its development bank French development bank Agence Francaise De Developpement (AFD), will invest more than Rs 800 crores in the Central Government’s Smart Cities Mission.
The funding is expected to be finalised before President Emmanuel Macron’s expected visit to India next month.
The bank is a major player in financing and providing technical assistance to those projects that improve daily livelihood in developing and emerging countries. It has been present in India since 2008.
Like France, developed countries like Germany and Japan want to provide technical assistance to various Smart Cities projects in India.
The Government has already picked 100 cities which will developed under the Mission. It will also provide an assistance of Rs 500 crore to these cities.
In total, these cities require a financial assistance of Rs 2.03 lakh crore to become smart.
