CII pilot smart city projects in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab

KOLKATA: The Confederation of Indian Industry ( CII) mentored three smart city pilot projects will be implemented in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab.

"The cities have been identified but the same will be announced by respective state governments," Sumit Mazumder said in his first interaction with the media as CII president in city.

West Bengal was not out of radar for smart city projects, but as pilot the three states were ahead, he said.

The pilots will also prepare and undertake demonstration projects, prepare prototypes to showcase best practices in various fields related to smart city development, he said.

The CII has already inked pacts with global technology firms Siemens of Germany and Hitachi of Japan. Soon it will sign the agreement with Cisco of US.

The industry body has set up a National Mission for Smart Cities - a platform comprising industry leaders and experts to provide policy advocacy and thought leadership to government and other stakeholders.

The CII director general Chandrajit Banerjee said the projects will be in PPP model and the foreign partner will also be responsible to mobilise multilateral funding.

Japanese multilateral agency JICA is likely to be involved in funding with Hitachi.

Banerjee said McKinsey will suggest the feasible financial model in the Cisco project. The industry lobby body will also have token stake in the projects but the detailed structure is yet to be worked out.

The CII will also take up four pilot villages for viability of Digital India, he added.