Three-year project for sustainable urban development
An Indo-German MOU has been signed for an “Implementation Agreement in Sustainable Urban Development and Smart Cities in India”, in New Delhi on 23 Feb 2018.
The programme is to develop and apply concepts for sustainable urban development about the provision of urban basic services and housing in selected cities and Smart Cities in India.
The Agreement was signed between Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs(MoHUA) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit(GIZ) GmbH.
Speaking after signing of the MOU, Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs, Hardeep Puri, said that the technical cooperation measure will support approaches for sustainable urban development in the area of integrated planning, provision of affordable housing and basic services with particular focus on water, waste water and solid waste management and mobility.
The ‘Sustainable Urban Development Programme – Smart Cities in India’ project is supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and jointly implemented by the MoHUA GIZ.
The government has set a target of promoting sustainable urban development under the national urban missions/programmes such as Smart Cities Mission, linking with the Sustainable Development Goal No. 11 ‘Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable’.
The German contribution to the project is up to 8 million EUR. The project will continue for a duration of three years (starting from 2018 till December 2020).
MoHUA and GIZ will jointly work on implementing the Indian Government’s missions, the optimisation of the national orientation framework and the dissemination of practice-proven approaches on sustainable urban development.
Amongst others, focus is given to integrated planning approaches for the three Smart Cities with development of local innovations and pilot approaches pertaining to the provision of affordable housing and basic services within the three cities.
Experiences and learnings from previous technical cooperation measures in the area of the provision of housing and sanitation as well as solid waste management will be integrated into the new project, said a government press note. fii-news.com
