Smart Cities asked to provide for Piped Gas supply

Hyderabad, Nov 21 (INN): The Union Ministry of Urban Development on Saturday asked the States and Urban Local Bodies to provide for Piped Natural Gas (PNG) supply and CNG stations in the cities selected for development as Smart Cities.

Greater Hyderabad and Greater Warangal of Telangana State and Visakhapatnam, Tirupati and Kakinada of Andhra Pradesh figure in the list of 98 'Smart Cities' selected by the Central Government.

They were also asked to ensure convergence of various schemes of the Central Government aimed at enhancing energy supply and related infrastructure in the Smart City Plans under preparation. These were conveyed to States and ULBs at a 'Smart City Proposal Enhancement Workshop' organized by the Ministry of Urban Development here today.

Dr.Sameer Sharma, Additional Secretary (Urban Development) and Mission Director, Smart City Mission informed the States and ULBs that Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a recent meeting of the NITI Ayog desired PNG supply and convergence of energy related and Digital India related schemes in Smart Cities being developed. Dr.Sharma made it clear to States and Urban Local Bodies that all claims regarding initiatives so far taken and proposed to be taken for smart city development should be substantiated by necessary evidence and the deadline for submission of Smart City Plans by December 15 will not be extended.

Ministries of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Power, New and Renewable Energy and Department of Electronics and Information Technology made detailed presentations on various schemes that could be converged under smart city development for better results.

Ashutosh Jindal, Joint Secretary(Petroleum and Natural Gas), in his presentation said that supply of gas is not a constraint for enabling PNG supply in Smart Cities and urged the urban local bodies to ensure speedy approvals for laying City Gas Distribution(CGD) Pipelines in smart cities. He informed that currently, 30 lakh PNG connections have been provided in 67 cities including 35 smart cities and the remaining Smart Cities need to be covered by piped gas supply. Informing that about 25 lakh vehicles are now running on CNG, Jindal urged planning for CNG stations in smart city plans.

A.K.Verma, Joint Secretary(Power) urged the states and ULBs of smart cities to take advantage of Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS) meant for strengthening Sub-transmission and distribution networks, metering of distribution transformers and feeders, IT enablement of distribution sector, IT enabled energy accounting and auditing in urban areas. he suggested installation of SCADA(Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) systems in smart cities for effective monitoring of power supply and use.

Tarun Kapoor, Joint Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy urged Smart Cities to ensure Roof Top based solar power generation as a part of measures to ensure that 10% of energy demand is met from solar power. He asserted that the cost of solar power comes to Rs.7.59 per unit and with subsidy being provided by the Ministry, it comes to Rs.5.50 per unit as against the rate of around Rs.8 to Rs.10 per unit being paid by most of commercial, industrial and government establishments. He stated that there is a potential for generation of 40,000 MW of Roof top based solar power and mostly in urban areas. Kapur stressed on green construction technologies which can save energy by over 30%. He asked the cities to send proposals for their inclusion in the Solar City Development scheme of the Ministry.

Stating that Digital India initiative is aimed at using digital information as a utility (like Adhar card), delivering government services on demand and digital empowerment of citizens, Rajiv Kumar, Joint Secretary, Department of Electronics and IT urged the smart cities to make use of infrastructure being provided for enabling smart solutions for video-monitoring of crimes, effective management of water, power, traffic, solid waste etc.,