UK joins hand with govt to develop 3 smart cities in India

Nagpur: The British Government has selected two cities of Maharashtra and one from Madhya Pradesh for developing them as 'Smart City', British Deputy High Commissioner, Mumbai, Kumar Iyer said on Friday.

The cities in Maharashtra include Pune and Amravati and Indore in Madhya Pradesh.

"It would be our endeavour to develop these cities as smart cities for improved traffic, better education, and infrastructure after preparing a master plan in near future," Iyer told a press conference here.

Each city has a different characteristic and therefore it will focus on projects specifically, he said.

Iyer, who is also the Director General of UK Trade and Investment, said the just-concluded visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to UK and signing of nine billion GBP (British Pound) in commercial deals will give a major boost to the Indo-UK trade.

UK is the largest investor in G20 in India, Iyer said, adding India is third largest investment partner in UK.

India invests more in UK than rest of European Union combined and in fiscal 2014-15, India emerged as Britain's third biggest job creator, creating approximately 7,730 new jobs, he said.

The High Commission will also be looking for venturing into the education field and a mega show is being organised here to showcase educational opportunities in UK for the Indian students, he added.