The Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) on Thursday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Swiss Confederation’s 2000Watt Smart City Association (2000WSCA) to develop eco-friendly and smart townships in the region.
The first-ever carbon-neutral township will open new avenues for people and upgrade technology in different sectors, PMRDA commissioner Vikram Kumar said after signing the MoU, for which Consul General of Switzerland Othmar Hardegger was also present in Pune.
2000Watt Smart City will be a new label developed under the agreement, which will create a new joint intellectual property of 2000WSCA and PMRDA for its application in Maharashtra, PMRDA officials said.
After the signing of the MoU, Hardegger said they had developed a strategy to support India in establishing carbon-neutral smart townships and will work closely with PMRDA.
“For the Smart City project, Maharashtra is an important place and Pune, in particular, is a focal point for investment as the economy here is attractive. I am optimistic that the township project will attract investors from India and Switzerland as well,’‘ he said.
The PMRDA commissioner said, “The smart township model will be designed based on the township structures in Switzerland. The carbon-neutral townships will consist of 12 different themes, focusing on specialized areas like agricultural cluster, emerging technology and tourism, financial technologies (FinTech), startups and health care. We’ll invite people to invest in the town-planning scheme and also develop the model on land belonging to PMRDA. If the project is successful, it can be adopted across the state.”Founding partner of 2000Watt Smart city Association Madhav Bhagwat said, “This development will attract investments of over $1 billion in the infrastructure segment and other establishments in various industries in Pune.”
Founding partner of 2000Watt Smart city Association Madhav Bhagwat said, “This development will attract investments of over $1 billion in the infrastructure segment and other establishments in various industries in Pune.”
The event was also attended by additional commissioner Kavita Dwivedi, chief metropolitan planner Vivek Kharwadkar and local partner Nikhil Dixit.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
