CII – UT’s joint Roundtable on Chd as Smart City organised
NewZNew (Chandigarh) : “Now with the various key priorities and areas being already identified by our citizens’ overwhelming participation to convert Chandigarh into the first smart city of India, it is high time that all Heads of Departments (HODs) of UT, experts from partner agencies, MC officials, other senior UT officials, and other concerned consultants should deliberate and brain storm on the city specific deliverables, actionable points, expectations, practical technology solutions, scope of interventions, their uses and the final impact, as per the precise requirements and needs, best suited to the city Beautiful”, emphasised Mr Vijay Dev, Advisor to the Administrator, UT Chandigarh while addressing the Roundtable on Smart Solutions for Smart Chandigarh jointly organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Chandigarh Administration, with Deloitte as the Knowledge Partner at CII NR Headquarters in sector 31-A, here today.
Appreciating the CII’s support to Administration in its objective to be in the list of top 20 smart cities, he said that “With CII’s active support, we have been able to get huge feedback and hence finalized the priorities that we received from the citizens through our E-portal, support of NGOs, welfare associations, media and various physical workshops across the city. The Ministry of Urban Development has even lauded Chandīgarh for getting maximum citizen’s participation”.
“Some of the key priority areas include Mobility, Utilities, Economy and Employment, Safety, Health and Education, e-Governance and Solid Waste Management. After engrossing discussions in today’s roundtable, we should be able to come out with some Chandigarh specific solutions”, he informed.
He also asked the HODs present to guide the experts on Chandigarh specific needs, minutely scrutinize various proposals and solutions, polish them and showcase as to how well they apply to UT and what will be the benefit and costs involved by the end of this week.
Mrs Poonam Sharma, Mayor, Chandigarh shared that “In Chandigarh, if infrastructure is taken care of, all else will be taken care of itself. Hence, my full thrust in on proper infra development. UT is already way ahead of other cities, what we need is technology implementation.”
In addition to experts from CII’s consortium partners – Siemens, Essel group, Bosch, Deloitte, Cisco etc, the UT HODs including Mr Anurag Agarwal, Home Secretary & State Mission Director (Smart City), UT; Mr Mukesh Anand, Chief Engineer; Mr Maneesh Chaudhary, SSP, Traffic; Ms Bhawna Garg, MC Commissioner; Mrs Poonam Sharma, Mayor and many others were also present and deliberated during the roundtable on various parameters.
“CII is committed to work with UT Administration to make Chandigarh a Smart city with focus on Chandigarh specific amenities like unpolluted air, safe drinking water, easier access to smart and good quality education, convenient and cheaper transport facilities, sufficient incomes, nutritional food, shelter, clean and hygienic conditions and security to all people including those living at the base of pyramid”, shared Mr Amarbir Singh, Chairman, CII Chandigarh Council.