Published On : Sat, Apr 8th, 2017

You get a Smart City only when Urban Amenities reach up to the last Citizen, says C.M. Fadnavis

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Nagpur
: (NMC) in association with Elets Technomedia had organized a Smart City summit on April 7 and 8 in Hotel Le Meridian in Nagpur.

The C.M. was addressing the valedictory session here today in the presence of other dignitaries like union Minister Nitin Gadkari, Divn. Commissioner Shravan Hardikar, P.C. K. Venkatesham, Mayor Nanda Jichkar, Director of Uber India Shweta Rajpal Kohli, Arun Lakhani of Vishwaraj Infrastructure, Sanjay Ubale of Tata Realties and CEO of Eletes Dr. Ravi Gupta.

Fadnavis said that NMC and State Govt. is bringing many projects to make Nagpur a Smart City but unless the benefits are reaped by every citizen of the city, their objective will not be realized.

He also rued the fact that only a small minority of the population pays city taxes which make such amenities possible.

He expressed confidence that once Nagpurians understand that the measures undertaken are to make life better for everyone, they will come forward and voluntarily be a part of the process. They will contribute to the financial burden by paying taxes too!


Union Minister Nitin Gadkari spoke about the move to power Nagpur Metro and the ambitious big Suresh Bhatt Hall with Green Energy which will pave way for many other projects like this in the future.

He said his Ministry is experimenting with Bio Ethanol and Gas run vehicles to bring down the cost of fuel.

A big laboratory to do research on this is being set up in the city.

He also disclosed that from 1st of May Nagpur will be the first city in the country to have a fleet of 20 cabs that will run on Electricity.


Municipal commissioner Shravan Hardikar presented at the summit, the road map for Nagpur. The conference witnessed participation from various other municipal corporations across the country besides senior central government officials. They were felicitated today for their achievements in their respective cities.

The summit saw discussions on four major themes — smart governance, smart mobility, smart infrastructure and smart environment. Elets Smart City Summit Nagpur 2017 had several interesting sessions on various aspects of using information technology (IT) and non-IT solutions for creating smart infrastructure for a holistic development of the urban space.


Some of the topics to come up for discussion include: Smart cities in era of digital India, Swacch Bharat — a mission shaping to reality, International smart city experience and Affordable housing .

A book on the subject of ‘Nagpur – first super smart city’ penned by P. Shekhar was also inaugurated at the hands of the C.M.