Make urbanization “Not just Livable, but Loveable too!!”: CM

Gandhinagar, 17 October 2014

Gujarat Chief Minister Mrs. Anandiben Patel today called on the Designers and Planners to prepare a blue-print of urbanizations of the cities in India and Gujarat in a way that they meet their required necessities for coordinated and all-round developments.

The Chief Minister was speaking at the inaugural function of “The Urban Design & Planning Seminar” being held at Mahatma Mandir here this morning. The seminar is a pre-cursor of the mega event — ‘The Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors’ Summit-2015’ to be held at the same venue in January, 2015.

The Seminar has attracted participations from expert urban designers and planners from every nook and corner of the country and even from advanced countries like USA, United Arab Emirates, Germany, Denmark, Australia and others.

Mrs. Patel urged the presence mass of designers and planners to make the deep deliberation on the challenges being poised by the urbanization of the cities and to come-out with a solution to convert those challenges into the opportunities.

The Chief Minister said, the smart planning and utilization of the latest technologies for the urbanization should be done in tandem with preservation of the environment. “The urbanizations of the cities should be not made just livable but loveable too!” she further added.

The Seminar would play an important role in fulfilling the dream of “Making 100 Smart Cities across the India” envisaged by the Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi, Mrs. Patel said in a conviction tone.

Speaking on the occasion, Mumbai based US Consulate General Mr. Tom Vajda said the recent visit of the Indian Prime Minister to US has opened-up new opportunities for both, Indian and US companies. The investment into India by US companies have made upward surge since then.
US is prepared to offer all cooperation to India in urbanizing its cities by helping in projects of infrastructure, energy, transportation and traffic management, Mr. Tom further added.

While, Denmark’s Ambassador to India, Mr. Freddy said, the urbanization is a major problem being faced by the every country of the world. Gujarat has given a visionary Prime Minister (Mr. Modi) to India, thus as a result the entire nation is becoming vibrant.

Mr. Freddy also praised the success of pilot project of “water” done at Rajkot city.

Gujarat’s 1600 km long coast-line can be a good and natural resource for generating power. The wind and solar energies must be utilized for generating electricity, Mr. Freddy emphasized.

Others who graced the occasion included Additional Chief Secretary (Urban Development Department) Mr. G. R. Aloriya, minister of state for gram vikas Mr. Jayantibhai Kavadia, Ahmedabad’s city mayor Mrs. Minaxi Patel, Gandhinagar’s city mayor Mr. Mahendrasinh Rana, Chief Secretary Dr. Varesh Sinha, Urban Secretary Mrs. Mona Khandhar, high level officers, industrialists and others.