Twelve smart cities to come up at India’s major ports
New Delhi: The Indian government is working on an ambitious plan to build one smart city at each of the country’s 12 major ports, at an aggregate investment of INR500bn ($8bn).
“Each port will construct one smart city, incurring expenditure of up to INR40bn,” said Nitin Gadkari, minister for surface transport, highways and shipping. “These will be green smart cities. We will launch work in about six months, and they will be complete in five years’ time.”
The 12 major ports under the central government’s control have, between them, an estimated 264,000 acres of land. The smart cities will be built on them as per international standards, with wide roads, green energy, advanced townships and greenery.
In addition, they will have e-governance links, facilities of international standard, special economic zones, shipbuilding and ship recycling centres. The cities will be pollution-free, and harness solar energy and wind power.