Germany will partner with India to develop Kochi, Bhubaneswar and Coimbatore as smart cities.

“Germany would contribute to India’s smart city programme and will help develop the cities of Kochi(Kerala), Bhubaneswar (Odisha) and Coimbatore(Tamil Nadu) as smart cities,” State Secretary in Germany’s Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety, Gunther Adler, told reporters here.

The three cities are among the 20 cities which are to be developed as smart cities, announced by Urban Development Ministry in January this year.

Germany had earlier set up a six-member joint committee with India to identify the cities which it could develop as smart cities.

The committee had two representatives of Urban Development Ministry, one from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, and three from Germany.

German Ambassador to India Martin Ney, addressing the press conference, said Germany is an ideal partner in India’s mission to create smarter cities as the country is “very strong at smart planning for urban centres“.

“We have developed the technologies to make life in cities easier. We have developed the processes to bring on board the stakeholders to make cities thrive and German companies have developed smart solutions to make smart cities,” he said.

Germany had already been engaged in various fields related to smart cities such as sustainable urban mobility, water and waste-water management, renewable energies and energy efficiency, the Ambassador said.

“We have been supporting important Indian initiatives such as ‘Swachh Bharat’, National Mission for Clean Ganga and Atal Mission for Urban Rejuvenation and Transformation,” he added.

Germany is India’s second largest bilateral donor with a record commitment of €1.5 billion (Rs 11,0000 crore) agreed last year, Ney said.

Meanwhile, India and the US have also agreed on formulating action plans for development of smart cities in Allahabad, Ajmer and Visakhapatnam.

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