Coimbatore is one among the shortlisted 100 for the initial phase of the Smart City project. Coimbatore city has been selected for support under the smart city mission, launched by Ministry of Urban Development (MOUD), Government of India this year.
As part of the initialisation, German Ambassador Martin Ney along with a 13 member delegation had arrived in Coimbatore to discuss in detail about the perspectives of the Smart City project.
A series of meetings have been lined-up with high officials of various departments in the city administration. They have also planned to meet the District Collector and officials to discuss the feasibility of the project.
The delegates discussed about the infrastructure feasibilities with the City Mayor P. Rajkumar and Corporation Commissioner Karthikeyan.
Martin Ney, addressed the press on the current status of the smart city project.
A fund of 265 million euros have been allotted in the past 7 years to the State of Tamilnadu towards waste management, underground sewage plans etc. and an additional 76 million euros has been allotted towards environmental upgradation, he added.
He also highlighted that Tamilnadu has the biggest portfolio of projects implemented with the assistance of KfW. He emphasised on the existing areas of co-operation between Germany and Tamilnadu in new and renewable energy projects like the green energy corridor, intra state transmission system and other urban infrastructure projects like storm water drainage and sewerage systems, urban mobility and transportation.
He asserted that Germany will work hand-in-hand with the State of Tamilnadu for the development of Cities under the smart city project. The people of the city have unanimously voted through the smart city portal to improvise the current traffic set ups prevailing in the city, hence the committee will address the issue as part of project, he assured.
He cited that Germany faced similar issues of unclean lakes around their cities, which has now been transformed into crystal clear water bodies after implementation of smart city project. Hence, he reassured that the eight water bodies around the city of Coimbatore would see drastic transformation after implementation of the project.