Corporation inks pact with Brussels

The Greater Chennai Corporation and the Brussels Capital Region signed an agreement on Wednesday for cooperation in the areas of urban development, sustainable development, Smart City project, and tackling global warming.

The agreement also aims at tackling issues such as gender equality, women empowerment, strengthening emergency response mechanisms during natural disasters, child rights in the context of urban development, protection of environment, technology and exchanges in facing administrative challenges.

The agreement was signed by Corporation Commissioner D. Karthikeyan, and State secretary for development cooperation of the Brussels Capital Region, Bianca Debaets. Municipal Administration Minister S.P. Velumani and Belgian Ambassador Jan Luykx were present..

Mr. Karthikeyan said the agreement would be a platform for sharing knowledge of best practices and address challenges faced in the creation of the proposed Smart City and other civic infrastructure development. Brussels city having made advances in the Smart City project, the team has shown interest in the execution of the Smart City project and construction of Command and Control Centres during emergencies.

Mr. Karthikeyan said though the finer details of the agreement are yet to be worked out vis-a-vis the involvement of Brussels, an MoU spells out a broad outline meant to promote cooperation in conservancy, recycling of waste and generating energy from garbage. He pointed out the Brussels Capital Region is keen to have knowledge-sharing of the Integrated Traffic Management System planned to be executed in the city as part of the Smart City project.