New Delhi, March 2015 – Spain has come forward to assist in transforming Delhi into a Smart City and a memorandum of understanding (MoU) will be signed shortly between the two countries accordingly.An understanding to this effect was reached at a meeting between Urban Development Ministry M Venkaiah Naidu and a nine-member delegation led by the visiting Minister of State for Trade of Spain Jaime Garcia-Legaz Ponce. While the US will help India in developing three smart cities in Allahabad, Ajmer and Visakhapatnamand, Germany have also shown interest to participate in the UD Ministry’s ambitious Smart City project.
After detailed discussion on the central government’s initiatives for urban development in the country, the opportunities there of and the global interest in them, the Spanish delegation expressed their keen interest in being associated with making Delhi a Smart City, sources said.It was agreed that a MoU would be signed between the two governments with focus on evolving a Master Plan for Smart Delhi. Both the ministers decided that action for signing the MoU will be initiated in right earnest.Gustavo de Aristegui Gonzalez, Spanish Ambassador in India described the understanding reached as an ‘exciting opportunity’ for cooperation between the two countries.
During the discussion, DDA Vice-Chairman Balwinder Kumare explained that DDA is looking forward to develop a greenfield smart city in an area of about 20,000 hectares besides smart infrastructure development in two pockets of Delhi with an areas of 1,00,000 sq mt and 1,20,000 sq mt and redevelopment of identified areas, in which Spanish agencies could lend technical support.Naidu said that after a Master Plan for Smart City was formulated, pan-city and regional plans could be taken up by the respective agencies. Economic Times
