Germany jumps on the 'Smart City' bandwagon

New Delhi: Germany on Monday announced it was going to help India develop Bhubaneswar, Kochi and Coimbatore as smart cities.
Visiting state secretary in Germany's ministry for environment, nature conservation, building and nuclear safety, Gunther Adler said Germany wanted to support India's ambitious smart city initiative.
The three cities are among the 20 cities which are to be developed as smart cities, announced by urban development ministry in January this year.Germany had earlier set up a six-member joint committee with India to identify the cities which it would partner. "We have developed the technologies to make life in cities easier. We have developed the processes to bring on board the stakeholders to make cities thrive and German companies have developed smart solutions to make smart cities," said German ambassador Martin Ney, adding, "We have been supporting important Indian initiatives such as Swachh Bharat, clean Ganga mission."