Surat enters smarter city challenge

SURAT : The city has set its eyes on becoming one of the smarter cities of the world in the next few years and has thus identified four major challenges that need to be tackled to achieve its aim.
Mayor Raju Desai sought technological assistance from IBM international foundation at the two-day smarter cities conference held in Gurgaon in Haryana from September 13.
Surat is ranked as fourth fastest developing city in the world and is ninth most populated in the country.
Desai said the city with a population of 45.64 lakh is always exploring new avenues and is hopeful of tackling the challenges with viable solutions.
"The challenges that our city face are with regard to water supply management, smarter energy generation, transport infrastructure and citizen centric civic services," said SMC's city engineer Jatin Shah.
"We are always the first city to embrace change for better. If modern technology can help us prevent loss while supplying water through our network, we are ready to explore new ideas," Desai said.
"We have to convert challenges into opportunities. If need be we will take the help of technology giants like IBM to tackle the challenges before us," he added.