Vibrant Gujarat Summit: Venkaiah Naidu pushes for PPP model to construct smart cities

GANDHINAGAR: Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said here today that the union government is not in a position to make all investments for smart cities and hence the public-private partnership (PPP) route would be necessary.

"It will take lakhs of crores of rupees to invest in smart cities. You cannot expect the government to make all that investment. We will invite private players to come forward and build smart cities.

"The government will provide viability gap funding and will also facilitate whatever is necessary, but it has to be built through the PPP model only," Naidu said at a session on building smart cities during the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar here today.

He said that the government is in the process of coming out with documents on smart cities by the end of the month, adding that the decision would be taken after consultations with all state governments.

"We will be coming out with the documents by the end of this month. We intend to call a meeting of all secretaries of urban development departments of various states for a final consultation.

"Local and state bodies need to be taken into confidence for development of smart cities. Only after that, we will launch the smart city plan," he said.

Naidu said that smart cities proposed by the Modi led government would be liveable as well as provide clean and healthy living conditions.

"We want road, developed infrastructure and better facilities. We want all these. We want reforms for urban rejuvenation," he said.