Prime Minister Narendra Modi today interacted with the Board of Directors of smart cities through video conferencing. This video conferencing was attended by Mayor Mr Harcharan Singh Gohalwaria, Additional Chief Secretary of Local Bodies Department Mr Satish Chandra, Deputy Commissioner Mr Ravi Bhagat, MC Commissioner Mr Ghanshyam Thori, Police Commissioner Mr Jatinder Singh Aulakh, PSPCL Chief Engineer Mr NK Sharma, besides several others.During the video conferencing, which was attended by Board of Directors of the Smart Cities of the country, Prime Minister Mr Modi congratulated all the stake holders and urged them to work hard in achieving success.Prime Minister Narendra Modi also launched the projects of those smart cities which are ready with the same. It was for the first time that BODs of all the top 20 smart cities interacted live with PM Mr Narendra Modi. The video conferencing took place at National Informatics Centre located in Mini Secretariat, here.The main aim of this video conferencing was to take stock of preparation of the selected smart cities and they also gave brief information about their vision for the implementation of the smart city.Mr Ghanshyam Thori said that for carrying development under the Smart City project, two different formats would be adopted, which include Area Based Development and Pan City Development. In Area Based Development, basic facilities would be provided in the chosen area.
This area would have environment friendly and ultra modern facilities, which would act as a torch bearer for the whole city. In Ludhiana, Ferozepur Road has been chosen for this purpose. He said that in Pan City Development, projects would be implemented in whole of city.Deputy Commissioner Mr Ravi Bhagat said that it was a great opportunity to get a chance to interact with PM Modi though through video conferencing, besides it also helped them in collecting the information about preparations of other top smart cities.Mr Satish Chandra said that under this project, a total of Rs 1100 crore would be spent, for which 50 percent would be contributed by the Centre government and remaining 50 percent by Punjab government. Besides this, the Special Purpose Vehicle would itself generate resources. He said that the Ludhiana Smart City Ltd has been established for preparing the design of Smart City, its implementation as well as supervision.Others who were present during the video conferencing were Mr Sanjay Goel, Chairman of Indian institutes of Architects Punjab Chapter, Ludhiana, Mr KNS Kang, Vice Chairman, Ludhiana Management Association, Mr Jaskirat Singh, besides several others.