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German delegation briefed on Smart Cities projects

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The Hindu      21.07.2016   

German delegation briefed on Smart Cities projects

Warm welcome:Mayor P. Rajkumar greeting German Ambassador to India Martin Ney on Wednesday. Commissioner K. Vijayakarthikeyan is in the picture.—Photo: S. Siva Saravanan.
Warm welcome:Mayor P. Rajkumar greeting German Ambassador to India Martin Ney on Wednesday. Commissioner K. Vijayakarthikeyan is in the picture.—Photo: S. Siva Saravanan.

The civic body officials on Wednesday shared details of its proposed projects under Smart Cities to a visiting German delegation led by Ambassador Martin Ney.

Sources in the civic body said that the Commissioner made a detailed presentation on the area-based development project – cleaning and development of eight tanks and the pan-city project – smart street poles.

The delegation, that included representatives of German industries, funding agencies and trade bodies, spoke in general about possible areas of cooperation.

Mayor P. Rajkumar said that only broad areas of collaboration were discussed and specifics did not come up at all. “I can tell you that we did not discuss numbers.”

Officials said that the delegation spoke about the country’s understanding with India, how it had funded projects in other states and Tamil Nadu, in particular. The team also expressed its desire to have a long-term understanding with Coimbatore.

Coimbatore had just inked a twin-city understanding with the German city, Esslingen.

Mr. Rajkumar added that the Wednesday’s visit would pave the way for serious discussion among participating agencies for implementing the Smart Cities project.

Earlier, Corporation school students gave a warm welcome to Mr. Ney and his team.