Shimla Spa town

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Shimla becomes part of green growth cities project

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By Times of India.

Tourist town of Shimla has become part of "Green Growth Cities" as the municipal corporation launched the ambitious project to identify and develop applications and solutions to support the concept of green growth with the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

The civic body has initiated the project with the help of World Bank, the Korean Green Growth Partnership and Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC). The other cities selected to implement this project in India is Panjim in Goa and Hubli-Dharwad in Karnataka.

The Korean Green Growth Partnership and the World Bank group are the key financing agencies for this project, whereas, the consultant for the project is PWC. To start with, municipal Corporation on Monday gave a brief presentation on development scenario of Shimla. Afterwards the team of World Bank gave a presentation on brief objectives and outcome of this project. The project has been divided into three phases.

"The first year is the assessment stage. The development objective of the proposed activity is to provide preliminary diagnosis and assessments in the ICT, urban, transport, energy, and water sectors with the intention of engaging Municipal Corporation and other stakeholders in the process of development of a green city initiative and provide foundation for large scale projects and smart city initiatives," said Shimla Deputy Mayor Tikender Singh Panwar.

 

He said that project will cover introduction of smart technologies to the city such as smart grid technology, smart water management system, intelligent city planning and ICT for government transformation.

 

"Based on assessments, the funding agencies and consultants will conduct a national level workshop for the key staff of Municipal Corporation Shimla. The project report will however present a comprehensive scenario and will include strategy for smart city architecture of the Shimla city," he added.

He said that second phase of the project is selection of pilot projects based on the priority of Shimla city. The pilot project will cover ICT services for governance, waste management, smart grid, transportation and urban administration and smart water management, he added.

He said that initial amount proposed for the pilot project is of $150,000 to 200,000. The consultants in this phase will provide end to end solution for the successful implementation of project and its sustainability. The third phase of the project is the assessment of the project works and its monitoring.