The UK government will help Pune city turn worldclass with an excellent urban plan for efficient water management, development of open spaces and smart traffic solutions.
The UK Prime Minister, David Cameron, during his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced UK-India city partnership with Pune and other towns to support the urban development goals through technical assistance, expertise sharing and business engagement. The UK government has released basic fund of Rs.1.5 cr to open an account to support the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC).
A joint statement on the United Kingdom-India Summit 2015 issued by the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office stated, “The two prime ministers announced three UK-India city partnerships with Indore, Pune and Amaravati to support India's ambitious urban development goals through technical assistance, expertise sharing and business engagement.“
The statement added that the two prime ministers welcomed the development of technical assistance partnership between the UK department of international development and the Indian ministry of urban development for national and state-led support for the development of smart and sustainable cities that are drivers of inclusive growth and job creation.
Pune municipal commissioner Kunal Kumar said that the process to get the UK's support for developing Pune as a Smart City was going on for several days. “Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis played a major role in this process and had a meeting with the British high commissioner. I had three meetings with the high commissioner and we received a letter of support from the British government 20 days ago,“ said Kumar.
The Centre is facilitating help from foreign countries and prominent cities to build Indian cities under the Smart City Mission. “We had received indications that the UK was interested in building Pune as a Smart City . The final announcement was made on Thursday and now they want us to have a financial and technical plan in place to take forward the collaboration. The programme management unit of UK will help monitor and implement the schemes,“ said Kumar. “London is a well-established model of urban planning.We are lucky to have UK as a partner in our mission to build Pune as a Smart City . Now, sky is the limit. The PMC is preparing a detailed plan for the UK-Pune partnership. A team of UK experts will be either stationed in Pune or will be travelling to the city regularly to monitor and assist the implementation of the plan.“
City MP Anil Shirole welcomed the British government's decision and thanked Modi on behalf of the citizens.“I will put maximum efforts so that the Smart City program me becomes more participatory, inclusive and less expensive,“ Shirole said in a statement issued on Friday .
Citizens are a tad skeptical because of their bitter experience in the past and want this announcement to be executed.
The centre government sources said Pune was among one of the top contenders to win a place in the final list of the Smart City Mission. All city-wise Smart City plans are being evaluated in the second stage of the City Challenge competition for identifying the top 20 cities for financing during the current financial year.
According to the Centre's plan, a Smart City would ensure core infrastructure needed for decent living in urban areas. The government is not aiming at making urban landscape look fanciful and flashy .The prime objective is to enhance the quality of urban life by addressing deficiencies in core infrastructure. Expectations in various quarters may be high but the mission is very practical and realistic in its intentions and objectives.
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