Working groups from Sweden and India are looking at opportunities and solutions with respect to India’s smart cities mission, Mehmet Kaplan, Sweden’s Minister for Housing, Urban Development and Information Technology, said.
On Wednesday, Kaplan met the Minister of Urban Development and Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation M Venkaiah Naidu.
“We now take the next step into implementing the MoU signed with India recently. My current visit to India is an expression of desire of close and long-term cooperation between the two countries and also between companies,” Kaplan said.
Sweden and India had in June signed an MoU on sustainable urban development during President Pranab Mukherjee’s visit to the country.
On the progress made so far on smart cities, Kaplan said, “There are working groups going on now from my Ministry. So that is making the base for taking this further on. But at company level, there are already some companies, for instance, producing biogas, which are working with counterparts here, making it possible to change the way you are looking at energy in India.”
He added, “Every one of the 100 smart cities need waste management. We have companies already operating in this space.”
Sweden has also set a target to be the first fossil fuel-free country in the world. “Our companies have to be on their toes even more. This will benefit Sweden but it will benefit India too because of our MoU,” Kaplan said.
The two Ministers have identified promotion of public transport, municipal waste management and digitalisation as priority areas for cooperation in the context of initiatives for development of smart cities and upgrading basic infrastructure in other cities in India.