Vadodara

The Vadodara Municipal Corporaion will submit its ‘Smart City’ proposal to the Centre before the December 15 deadline, VMC Commissioner H S Patel said today.

“We are putting in our best efforts to get Vadodara included in the first round of 20 Smart Cities. We have done lot of ground work in various aspects of civic amenities. Our proposal will be submitted to the Urban Development Ministry before the deadline of December 15,” Patel said.

He said Vadodra is the industrial capital of western India housing projects of various multinational companies like Bombardier, Alstom, ABB and TBEA and several Indian corporate giants including Reliance Industries Ltd, IOC-owned Gujarat refinery, ONGC, GAIL, GSFC, GNFC in-and-around the city.

“Vadodara, the capital of the erstwhile princely Gaekwad state of Baroda, is gearing up to compete with 100 other cities to be included in the first round of 20 smart cities of the country,” he said, adding the selected city will get total Rs 500 crores for the project in five years.

“The strategic components of area-based development in the Smart Cities Mission guidelines are city retro-fitting, plus a pan-city initiative in which smart solutions are applied covering larger parts of the city. Some of these features have already been initiated in Vadodara, so we are better positioned in many aspects,” he said.

The idea behind the mission is to improve the quality of life and attract people and investments to the city, setting in motion a virtuous cycle of growth and development.

Six cities from Gujarat will be selected as ‘Smart Cities’ under the project.

“VMC has carried out various reforms and implemented projects in last couple of years and is uniquely positioned as far as smart cities are concerned,” Patel said.

Once the city is selected, it has to set up a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) with the appointment of full-time CEO for the mission. The SPV will look after the project implementation.

PTI