'Smart Cities' should bring quality of life with inclusivity: M Venkaiah Naidu

NEW DELHI: Union Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu has said that the focus of ' Smart Cities' initiative should be to enhance quality of urban life through an integrated approach to planning and execution besides ensuring ' inclusivity'. Naidu was reviewing the progress on conceptualisation of 'Smart Cities' at a two-day brainstorming session held here on various aspects of urban development.

The focus of this ('Smart Cities') project should be to enhance quality of urban life through an integrated approach to urban planning and execution besides ensuring inclusivity, the minister said in a statement.

The minister talking on future urban development plans suggested that there could be two different schemes - one for renewal of 500 urban habitations and the other for 'Smart Cities', he said. The 500 habitations are to be provided with safe drinking water, sewerage management and use of recycled water, solid waste management and digital connectivity as mentioned in the General Budget for 2014-15, he said.

Apart from Naidu, Union Minister Piyush Goyal, former Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and MPs Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Baijayant Panda and Rajiv Chandrasekhar were among the participants at the session, who put forth their views on smart cities. The session ended today.

Rudy said that six dimensions of smart cities should be -- smart governance, smart mobility, smart environment, smart ecology, smart people and smart living. He said based on the learnings of experience of some Asian and other developed countries, an India-specific model was to be evolved.

Naidu, who is also the Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, directed officials to prepare notes for cabinet at the earliest, based on the learnings of Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) implementation of the previous UPA government, suggestions received during the two-day deliberations and from other sources.

Scindia suggested development of 'counter magnet cities' to spread urbanisation to new areas.

Chandrasekhar said though JNNURM had laudable objectives, it failed to develop a single 'model city' and this experience should be taken into account while devising new urban development schemes. He claimed, under JNNURM, central government ended up "merely supporting asset creation".