Nellore: The state government has included the name of Nellore in the list of Smart Cities along with Kakinada and Tirupati. Principal secretary of municipal administration and urban development (MAUD), and the director of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) signed a Memorandum of Understanding to develop the three cities in presence of urban development minister, Dr P. Narayana at Vijayawada on Saturday.
Interestingly, there was no mention about selection of Nellore as Smart City in any of the Government of India websites but civic body officials in Nellore maintained that CII is in a tie-up with Government of India to develop Smart Cities.
The inclusion seems to be at the last minute, going by a communication received by Nellore Corporation from MAUD on Saturday directing the commissioner to be present during the event at Vijayawada.
“CII would handhold a few select urban local bodies in India through the preparatory phase to give a boost to the Centre's flagship Smart Cities scheme. CII has set up a 'National Mission on Sm-art Cities' and the objective of this mission is to play the role of a facilitator and a thought leader to assist the government in the process of the development of 100 Smart Cities by 2022. The MoUs are part of the implementation strategy to take forward the cities initiative,” said municipal commissioner P.V.S.S.N. Murthy.
Mayor S.K. Abdul Azeez said that they have already presented a study report on geographical conditions, potentiality, population and other details to CII and it has paved the way for the selection.
According to Mr Azeez, experts from CII would carry out a study on the gaps to transform Nellore as Smart City. The benefits of Smart City include adequate water supply, assured electricity supply, sanitation including solid waste management, efficient urban mobility and public transport, robust IT connectivity and digitalisation, good governance, especially e-Governance and citizen participation among others.
