New Delhi: Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) is preparing “Liveable Index” for smart cities across the country, the bench marking of which should be emulated by the developers of such cities in a bid to make these a real world class dwelling units with all necessary facilities, according to its Economic Adviser, Anupam Mishra. Without revealing and specifying the time frame by which such bench marking standards would fall in public domain, he also disclosed that the Government would soon select 10 more existing cities for their conversion in to smart cities depending on the proposal of the States and UTs as the Union has already selected 90 cities for their transformation into smart cities. Addressing a Conference on “Smart Cities in India ? Journey so far” under aegis of PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry here today, Mr Mishra indicated that “Liveable Index” would be finalised shortly to make sure that the bench marking standards prescribed under it are followed and emulated by the special purpose vehicles companies that make smart cities for their world class quality and best of civic and other amenities. The “Liveable Index” will also be a sort of guiding principle for setting up of smart cities that will generate the competition among SPVs to make out their best so that the smart cities have all what is intended and implied in them, pointed out Mr Mishra. Mission Director, National Water Mission, Ministry of Water Resource, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, M Ariz Ahamed who also spoke on the occasion, however, said that Ministry of Water Resources and Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) are jointly developing standards for water levelling so that the quality of water is ensured for smart cities and even for other segments with element of costs involved in them. Similarly, the government would gradually come out with measurement standards for water so that its waste is restricted and maximum focus applied on its multiple recycling for diverse usages, he added. (UNI)
