Government aims to make Gurgaon a smart city in six months

New Delhi: The government aims to turn Gurgaon into a so-called smart city by the end of this year and wants it to be a model for other such projects in the rest of the country, energy minister Piyush Goyal said on Wednesday.

Personally I would love to see it happen in six months,” Goyal told in an international conference, Gridtech 2015, on wedensday organized by Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL). It will certainly be achieved by the end of the year, the minister averred.

The conference was accompanied by an exhibition of various power projects with participants across India and 40 other countries. It showcased a model smart city, which was lauded by Goyal as he urged the company and private investors to chalk out a plan to convert Gurgaon into a “pilot showcase” for the government’s smart city initiative.

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government had last year declared its mission to create 100 smart cities with better technology, superior management and modern governance. The project is likely to be rolled out this month after extensive consultations with stakeholders.

Goyal stressed the need to improve the distribution and transmission of power with the objective of last mile connectivity to homes. He asked PGCIL to create an “ambitious grid programme” by 2019 which would take care of the demand for the next 10-15 years.

Out of the $50 billion that the government plans to invest in grids, $18 billion is expected to be generated from two schemes in this sector.

“We are looking at at least $18 billion support through Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojna for rural India and Integrated Power Development Scheme for urban India,” said Goyal.

While India has an installed power generation capacity of 255,012.79 megawatts (MW), its national grid has an inter-regional power transfer capacity of about 46,450MW, which the government plans to increase to 72,250MW by 2017.