Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy has called for conceptualizing smart cities according to Indians needs. While speaking at 2nd Smart Cities India 2016 Expo, Shri Goyal said that in the Indian context we need to conceptualize, a practical and doable, affordable smart city concept which can be deliberated, discussed and then implemented in the country.
Shri Goyal said that the power of economies of scale, the power of leveraging billion plus aspiring individuals, ensuring affordability to make a programme self sustainable, practical application in the Indian context are the keys to the implementation of smart cities in our country. “What we need to do is to look at the economies of scales and faster ramp up of those ideas, which can really work for the benefit of the people in a fashion can be done so that there is a visibility of what these smart cities are going to be all about”, Shri Goyal added.
Citing an example of energy efficiency programme, Shri Goyal said that 83% cost reduction in LED bulbs was possible due to massive roll out of programme and the people of India will save 6.5 billion dollars every year in their electricity bills.