Smart city expo starts with agenda ‘YES WE CAN’

Can India develop Smart cities in coming years? Answering YES to this question 2^nd Smart city Expo has begun. Political and business leaders meet for three days in Delhi, Pragati Maidan starting from Wednesday, discussing all the possibilities of smarter solution of better tomorrow. Whereas participants of 40 countries are exhibiting their smart products and solutions on the show floor and to demonstrate huge international interest towards India’s ambitious mission of developing Smart Cities, the expo is hosting 4 individual country pavilions (Holland, Poland, Sweden, and Taiwan).

Smart cities mission is a mega project, there is need of conceptualizing things according to Indian needs. “In the Indian context we need to conceptualize, a practical and doable, affordable smart city concept which can be deliberated, discussed and then implemented in the country.” said Piyush Goyal, Power and Coal Minister.

India has all the sources and the opportunities are available here, we just need to initiate, evolve and implement. Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu called for the need of smart planning,   “Here challenge is how the policy maker will plan things, and to make it more better we need smart ideas”. He further added “this concept is not static, we must plan better and most important thing is to manage natural resources, it must be plan to ensure that smart cities will manage efficiently without causing hazard to resources”.

Talking about railway he mentioned that most frequented place being Railway station 400 stations have been identified to redevelop, as railway is the beginning point of smart cities. He also cited example of Habibganj which is being developed.

The event is witnessing exhibition and conference covering various segments including waste and water management, smart environment, urban planning, green buildings, smart transport, IT and communications, e-governance, safety and security, smart manufacturing, and disaster management.

While on day one discussion sessions were held on various topics by Meenakshi Lekhi (MP, Lok Sabha), Dr. Arunabha Ghosh (CEO, Council of Energy Environment & Water, India); Dr. Ajay Mathur (Director General, TERI); Ravinder Pal Singh (Director – Solutions Strategy & Business Development, Smart Cities, IoT & Digitization, Dell Inc., India); Anna Liberg( Trade Commissioner to India, Business Sweden India), Jayant Kohale (Business Leader, L&T).