Budgetary provisions for smart cities was need of the hour: Jaijit Bhattacharya, KPMG

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his maiden budget speech said the government will aim to spend Rs 7060 crore for 100 smart cities. This is expected to give direction to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of building multiple smart cities in India.

“We welcome the initiative which is the need of the hour for the Indian economy," said Jaijit Bhattacharya, Partner, infrastructure and Government Services, KPMG.
Elaborating on this he said that cities are growth enablers and current Indian cities are choking with the economic growth in India.

"It is heartening to note that budgetary provisions have been made for modern next generation cities,” Bhattacharya noted.

The smart city concept, on the whole, is relatively a new concept in the Indian context with projects such as GIFT and Naya Raipur as the most notable initiatives which are in their initial phases of implementation.