Naredco lauds Centre’s move to name 13 more smart cities

The National Real Estate Development Council (Naredco) has lauded the Central Govt’s announcement of 13 additional cities to be developed as smart cities at an investment of Rs 30,229 crore.

Parveen Jain, President, Naredco, said, “The concept of smart cities would lead to well-planned urbanisation with aesthetic beauty comparable to international standards.”

Jain said Naredco sees immense opportunities for the real estate industry in transforming the cities likes Lucknow, New Town in Kolkata, Bhagalpur, Dharamsala, Chandigarh, Faridabad, Raipur, Ranchi, Warangal, Agartala, Imphal, Port Blair and Panaji into smart cities.

Selected through a transparent process, these cities have huge potential to grow into modern smart cities, Jain said, adding further that these cities are also potential tourists’ destinations.

With the latest technological advancements and modernisation in construction sector, the realty sector is fully equipped to undertake any task in a time bound manner, said Jain.

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Each city will be given Rs 500 crore by the Centre over a period of five years with states matching this with their contribution. “The scope of work covered in Smart City package will benefit all segments of society including poor and enhance their life style with best services available”, Jain said.

Since land is State subject, state Governments have selected cities based on the score for their capacity to carry out urban reforms. They should now open “single- window project clearance mechanism” to hasten approvals and fast-track development of smart cities, in a time-bound manner, said Jain.