Naidu and USTDA discuss about Smart Cities

The Dollar Business Bureau

A delegation headed by the Leocadia I Zak, Director of US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) on Wednesday met M Venkaiah Naidu, Union Minister for Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation and discussed about the smart cities mission, for which MoUs have been signed.

“The discussion was centred on the three smart cities – Visakhapatnam, Ajmer and Allahabad – for which Memorandums of Understanding MoUs has been signed between the respective state governments and USTDA,” according to an official release.

Naidu said that the process of selecting the smart cities (a competition between cities to be included in the mission) is very transparent, scientific and participative, and is serving as a ‘role model’ for several other schemes.

The centre has adopted a proactive methodology to go forward on the mission of Smart Cities, he added.

Naidu further said that the Reverse Trade Mission has been strategically planned so that foreign officials could visit US to observe the designing, manufacturing and operations of the products and services in that country. The US can also support in achieving their goals in the development of Allahabad and Ajmer and in the training of CEOs and Mayors of Smart Cities. This is yet to be finalised.

The Union Minister said that there must not be a resource constraint for the Smart Cities Mission, and also put emphasis on the people participation in the development of smart cities.

In Indore, about 6.5 lakh people have provided suggestions to improve the city, he added.