Smart cities should aim to improve the quality of urban governance, lending greater strength to the country’s overall governance process, the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has said.

Modi chaired a high-level meeting with the Government officials on Monday on smart cities initiative, where he has asked the Ministry of Urban Development to convene a workshop of all Central and State urban development authorities at the earliest, a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said.

The workshop should also focus on reforms in laws related to urban development, he said, and called for identifying parameters that could be laid down for smart cities.

He asked the officials to identify the basics of infrastructure, quality of life, and citizen-centric services that would be essential for cities of the 21st century.

The cities should be identified as hubs of economic activity and focus on solid-waste management, and waste-water treatment would be an important part, the statement added.

The Prime Minister has asked the Government officials to visualise ‘urban-dependent’ population, in addition to ‘urban’ population, while planning for these cities.

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