A day after the city government announced that the government will set up the Centre of Excellence in Urban Economics (COE) to develop and implement smart cities, I met with a senior official who said that the central government had already set up COE for the cities of Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, and Rajasthan.
The official, who did not wish to be identified, said that Gujarat and Tamil Nadu have a very similar urban development strategy.
He added that the Gujarat government was also looking at creating a centre of excellence in the same field.
“The state government is also working on the urbanisation roadmap.
In Rajasthani, we have already announced a partnership with the Planning Commission and a team of scholars to study how urbanisation can work.
We have also proposed to set up a center of excellence for urban development in the state.
In Tamil Nadu we have started a process for setting up the center of expertise in the area of urban economics,” the official said.
The central government is already in the process of creating the COE to study urbanisation and develop a blueprint for smart cities.
The state government has also proposed a smart city plan and also a plan to develop urban infrastructure, he added.
“We are also looking for the best urban governance model in the country.
We want to be in a position to design smart cities,” he said.
As per the city’s smart city roadmap, it is envisaged that a smart development plan should include: • the planning, design and implementation of smart infrastructure • smart development of land, buildings and infrastructure • social infrastructure for people living in the urban areas • development of smart water and sanitation infrastructure.
In the state, the plan has already been submitted to the Central Government.
The state is also looking into setting up a central planning commission, which will also have the power to create smart city development plans and to regulate urban development.
In the Rajasad city, the state government was set up to set priorities for urbanisation.
“We have also asked the Centre to set the parameters of the smart city in the next three years.
If we get good results, we will create a smart cities plan and a plan for the state,” said the official.
The plan envisages setting up smart infrastructure for a smart urban population in the city.
It has also suggested that smart infrastructure should be built in areas like schools, health centres, civic institutions, and public transport corridors.
According to the government, the smart urban development plan will be put in place by September next year.
The central government has already set out a Smart City Mission, which aims to set a goal for urban growth by 2020.