FICCI and Udaipur Municipal Corporation (UMC) today signed a Memorandum of Understanding for developing Udaipur as a Smart City. Post signing the MoU, a workshop to brainstorm on the challenges faced by the city of Udaipur and the solutions to address these challenges was organized by FICCI in co-operation with UMC.

Sectoral experts from various companies made technical presentations in the areas of solid waste management, urban mobility and heritage conservation. The meeting was attended by Gulab Chand Kataria Home minister, Rajasthan state, Rohit Gupta District Collector, Chandra Singh Kothari  Mayor, Udaipur Municipal Corporation; R.N. Mehta Secretary UIT, Himmat Singh Barhat, Commissioner, Udaipur Municipal Corporation and other senior officials from the municipality. Senior representatives from private sector companies were also present in the workshop.

According to the MOU, FICCI will jointly work with UMC and all other stakeholders such as industry experts, civil society and other stakeholders to develop vision, goals & strategies for Udaipur as a Smart City and thereafter support implementation of the same in Udaipur.

FICCI will align the interest of industry members with those of the government and will also provide technology support to the Udaipur Smart City project through FICCI smart city committee. FICCI will assist the UMC through required consultation and advisory inputs on policy advocacy relevant to the development of Udaipur under the smart cities initiative.

FICCI, through its members, will work in collaboration with UMC in the following areas:

• Creation of Financial plans for various sectors & creation of innovative sources of the Municipal Finance

• Legal & contracting

• Project based support for projects in areas like Transport, Solid Waste Management, Heritage Conservation, Tourism, Water Supply, Housing, Sewerage, Health, Education, Storm Water Drainage

• Capacity building to plan, design and execute projects efficiently

• Workshop to identify the challenges and solutions

• Advise on appropriate governance and implementation frameworks

Speaking at the MoU signing meeting, Home minister said that Udaipur already has god gifted hills and lakes; the necessary thing is to preserve and increase tourist destination Handholding by FICCI will increase the capacity of corporation..

Chandra Singh Kothari, Mayor, Udaipur Municipal Corporation said that Udaipur is doing well and now it should clear the II round challenge with handholding by FICCI

In his concluding remarks, Himmat Singh Barhat, Commissioner, Udaipur Municipal Corporation emphasized that this partnership will result in a collaboration that will enable us to create a platform for improving our urban services in the future in the areas of transport, solid waste management, heritage conservation, tourism, water supply, housing, sewerage, health and education.

This cooperation will also work towards capacity building of the UMC officials to plan, design & execute projects efficiently and also to create a smart city vision for the city which will be vital for achieving the goals of UMC in the coming years.

Mausomi Roy, FICCI expressing his views on this engagement said that our association with the Udaipur Municipal Corporation will go a long way in hand holding the local body to achieve its vision of a smart city. We will bring expertise from private sector to provide best solutions to the city in upgrading its services. We will need support from the State Government of Rajasthan in making this partnership successful.