SMART CITY PROJECT: CHANDIGARH SIGNS MOU WITH FRENCH BODY
The UT Administration on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Agence Francaise Development (AFD) on technical cooperation in the field of sustainable urban mobility during a workshop, “Chandigarh Smart City”, held in Chandigarh on Friday. The MoU was signed by Minister Counsellor, Embassy of France in India, Jean Marc; director AFD, Nicolas Fornage; and K K Jindal, secretary transport, Chandigarh Administration.
Seeking assistance from the AFD and entire French delegation, UT Adviser Parimal Rai emphasised the importance of making Chandigarh not just smart but the smartest city on the world map.
Minister Counsellor, Embassy of France in India, Jean Marc congratulated Chandigarh on making it to the list of smart cities. Jean Marc assured the Chandigarh Administration that the Indo-French partnership would continue to be strong to address all the issues pertaining to Smart City Project and to achieve the vision of making Chandigarh a healthy, happy and happening city.
Presentations were made by the Chandigarh Administration and AFD. Both sides highlighted the key points to make Chandigarh the smartest city in the world. With a vision to make Chandigarh a vibrant and unique regional centre and leader in livability, sustainability, equality and innovation, Chandigarh municipal commissioner Baldeo Purushartha discussed all the strategies, goals and progress made by the administration to achieve this aim.
Director (AFD) Nicolas Fornage highlighted the ongoing cooperation of the agency in areas of smart funds, smart ideas that can help the Chandigarh Administration in reaching closer to its goals. He emphasised the AFD’s assistance to implement the smart city project by providing recommendations on institutional, operational and financial structuring of the project and by organising a workshop between experts and Chandigarh authorities.
Work in 5 areas
AFD has started working in five different domains: 24×7 water supply, sewerage management, solid waste management, urban mobilisation and smart GRID system in Chandigarh. UT Adviser Parimal Rai said in the next two months, the smart city project tendering would be done through a transparent bidding mechanism.
