By IANS,
Chandigarh : Manesar in Haryana will soon be home to the country’s first eco-city pilot initiative, a senior official of the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) said here Wednesday.
“A team from Toshiba, which did the study for this initiative, has submitted its pre-feasibility report today (Wednesday),” Rajeev Arora, managing director of HSIIDC, said.
The eco-city project was conceived as part of the Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor initiative.
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between India and Japan for the project and subsequently Maharashtra, Gujarat and Haryana were identified as its sites.
An MoU was signed between HSIIDC and a consortium of Japanese companies led by Toshiba, including NEC, Tokyo Gas and others, to set up the eco-city at Manesar, an industrial hub in Haryana near Gurgaon, 50 km from New Delhi.
A smart community or eco-city is defined as a community where citizens, business and government work, live and interact through delivery of integrated, low carbon products and services.
The objective of this project is to build a new industrial community to maximise the welfare of the people and minimise carbon emission by integrating technology across water, waste, energy, transportation and safety infrastructure, Arora said.
According to him, the feasibility report will be analysed in detail by the HSIIDC and a road map will be set for the implementation of the project.
The study covered areas such as water, water recycling, power, logistics, solid waste management and transportation. This has been funded by the Japanese ministry of economic trade and investment.
Arora said the implementation for the project would be through a special purpose vehicle (SPV) comprising Japanese and Indian sides.
Japan has successfully implemented the concept in Kitakyushu town and developed it as a smart community. It is recognised as a unique model of sustainable industrial development where different wastes including automobiles, home appliances, medical instruments, construction waste, and food waste are recycled through various private companies.
Kitakyushu used to be the most polluted industrial city in Japan in the 1970s.