Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) may fund projects worth around Rs. 5 crore to mitigate the impact of climate change. Four cities have been selected for the project with Udaipur being one of them.

Shirish Sinha, Deputy Director of Cooperation, SDC gave this information in an interaction with Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Coimbatore. The other cities outside Udaipur that have been chosen for the project include Siliguri, Rajkot and Coimbatore.

Shirish said that the Swiss Government planned to spend 4 million Francs on the four cities for implementing short and long term projects. 1 million Franc has been ear-marked for each city. SDC functions under the Foreign Affairs Ministry of the Swiss Government.

With the funding, the cities would implement short-term pilot projects on climate change mitigation. These could include water body management, waste water and solid waste management, urban transport improvement, etc.

Besides this, Sinha said that the Corporations in the cities would also be encouraged to take up long term projects. He said that SDC would provide technical assistance and also help in arranging funds from international funding agencies.