Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, April 13: Bhubaneswar is the first city to move towards implementation of the Smart City scheme, Union urban development secretary Rajiv Gauba said Wednesday while reviewing the progress in this regard through video conferencing.
Gauba reviewed the progress on formation of the special purpose vehicle (SPV) for execution of smart city projects, appointment of CEO for the SPV and allocation of funds to the urban local body concerned, housing and urban development (H&UD) special secretary Sisir Ratho told Orissa POST Wednesday.
“We have completed all the three components, while other states have not. The Union secretary praised the state’s effort to make Bhubaneswar the first smart city of the country,” Ratho said.
The state government has requested the Centre to provide technical support for floating of tenders and the later agreed, he said. “The Union government also agreed to our recommendation to provide training to newly appointed CEOs,” he said.
As the smart city is a new concept and some of the projects would be implemented with the cooperation of other countries, it would be difficult for the newly recruited officers to deal with such things without proper training and guidance, Ratho pointed out. Therefore, the state government recommended provision of training to the CEOs and filed visits to smart cities such as Spain, he said.