Jain inaugurates 6th Smart Cities India Expo in city

New Delhi: The state's Urban Development Minister Satyendar Jain inaugurated the 28th Convergence India and the 6th Smart Cities India Expo in the city. The Minister stressed on the need to be both smart and sustainable when looking at growth and not just be smart about working and keep a focus on the 'greenery' in the city as well.

"Smart and sustainable growth should go hand in hand, but in practice, we have separated the two and have focused on smart growth. We renovate and repair the old and existing buildings to make them smart, however, we don't get the desired outcome. It's

better to demolish them and make a good structure at once," Jain said.

"For Delhi, we need to stress more on multi-level buildings and less on the ground coverage. In today's time, there is a need to look for holistic solutions and whatever is smart will be efficient and cost-effective," he said while adding that the biggest problem in the big cities is planning and relaxation of too many zoning restrictions.

"Today, Delhi has a total land area of 1500 sq. km and in that, the way we are expanding, that way we won't be able to leave any open space. Delhi gave two new smart cities — Rohini and Dwarka. Rohini is a planned slum while post-independence, Chandigarh and Rohini were developed. Every city has a 10-12 per cent road area while in the Capital a lot of road space is consumed and yet there is congestion," he said.